Forever the scars will remain
by Darkloverkitsune
Summary: Naruto wanted to protect Sasuke from all those people who were trying to find and kill him. For all of them he was a very dangerous criminal. But for Naruto, it was still Sasuke... post-canon, yaoi, NaruSasu, re-written
1. Chapter 1

Forever the scars will remain

Re-written

Warnings: Yaoi, rated M

I do not own Naruto, he belongs to Sasuke… uh Kishimoto

This takes place two years after the current anime

Chapter 1

"Tsunade no baa-chan, I'll ask you one more time, please stop the search for Sasuke," Naruto pleaded with watery blue eyes, in front of the godaime hokage.

Tsunade sighed. "We've been over this, Naruto." She said sadly.

"I know, but if the anbu find him they will kill him, or get killed by him, most likely. I don't understand why you haven't already stopped it!" Naruto argued for the hundredth time.

"The villagers don't feel safe knowing Sasuke is still out there. His plan with Madara was to destroy the whole village! Even though Madara's dead, we have to keep searching for Sasuke..."

"I know." Naruto said with a determined look on his face. "That's why I want you to bring back the others, and send me on a mission to find him, on my own."

Tsunade's eyes widened, "But Naruto, you're a juunin now! You have responsibilities in the village, you want to be the next Hokage and you still have to train Konohamaru and help rebuild the village and..."

"I know, but I'll take on my responsibilities when I come back. That's a promise."

Tsunade looked worried. "Are you planning to come back with Sasuke?"

Naruto ignored her question. "Baa-chan, you know all too well that even if you don't approve of this, I will go anyway. I have to do this..."

A voice was suddenly heard from the door behind him, "And what will you do when you find him, Naruto?"

Sakura stepped in Tsunade's office. She had been listening to them the whole time apparently.

"Sakura-chan, don't get involved with this please." Naruto said.

"Why?" she asked fervently. "I loved Sasuke! And you know that. But he tried to kill me!"

"You tried to kill him first, Sakura." Naruto reminded her.

"He was planning on destroying Konoha!" Sakura almost screamed.

"Sakura!" Tsunade interrupted.

The pink-haired kunoichi went quiet.

"I see your point, and I know why you are involved. But Naruto's right, this kind of mission is too dangerous even for anbu members, and for you, Sakura." Tsunade sighed, turning back to Naruto. "I will do what you ask, and send you on this mission alone, Naruto."

"But, Tsunade-sama!" Sakura protested.

"I have always trusted Naruto before, and I will continue to trust him now. I hope I'm making the right decision. Anyway, as you said, Naruto, I suppose you will go whether I let you or not..."

Naruto nodded. "Yes. But thanks for trusting me, baa-chan."

With that, Naruto left the room and walked outside towards his apartment.

A few moments later, he was quickly gathering his stuff and weapons in his bag, when he heard a knock on his door.

"Naruto open the damn door!" a feminine voice shouted.

"Just a second Sakura-chan!"

He opened the door to an upset looking Sakura. "Naruto I won't let you go alone." She said.

Naruto sighed and finished gathering his stuff. He was ready to go; all that was left was convincing Sakura that he would be okay. Maybe trying to convince himself at the same time...

"I have to do this Sakura-chan! Please understand me, it's exactly like you when you decided to go after him and kill him. You were so determined; you even lied to me..."

"That's not true, Naruto. I really do love you and I don't want you to get hurt, that's why I don't want you to go, it's too dangerous..." Sakura said.

"You know me, I'll get hurt all right, but when I come back you'll be there to patch me up, or maybe hit me and hurt me even more... I never know what to expect with you." Naruto smiled.

Sakura punched him, "Baka!"

His point exactly…

"What the hell was that for?" He shouted and stepped back.

Sakura ignored him. "Let me come with you. Maybe Kakashi-sensei could come with us too. You don't have to do this alone, Naruto."

"That's where you're wrong. I _do_ have to do this alone. You know what will happen if you two come along. You'll get all emotional and Kakashi-sensei will just openly attack and get in my way. This is my fight, it has always been." Naruto argued.

Sakura didn't reply. Naruto walked out of his apartment and Sakura followed him. They walked in silence, and at a fast and determined pace. Soon they got to the edge of the leaf village.

"Naruto... I just hope that you're not doing this because of the promise you made me when we were kids."

"What? No! I told you before; it's not about that anymore. I'm no longer a child and I know that Sasuke isn't coming back to Konoha to have fun and train with us and go eat ramen while Kakashi-sensei is treating us! Sakura it's time to grow up." Naruto said bitterly.

Sakura nodded. "You really have changed."

Naruto shook his head. "No I'm still the same old me! And I'll be back in no time, you'll see. You don't need to worry."

"But why?" Sakura asked.

Naruto was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Baka! You know what I'm talking about. I want to know why you're doing this, if it's not for me."

Naruto frowned. "It's... personal."

She was about to protest and insist some more, but he silenced her with a hug. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and closed his eyes for a few moments. Then, without a word, he pulled away and started running. He didn't look back.

xxx

"Get off me Karin!" Suigetsu shouted.

The red-head whined and pouted. "But you make a comfortable pillow."

"Why don't you just go try again with Sasuke if you need affection that bad."

Karin sat up and glared at Suigetsu who was still lying on the cold floor of Orochimaru's small hideout. No one could find them there. The only ones who knew about this place were Sasuke and Karin herself.

"Must I remind you that he's a cold bastard who tried to kill me?"

"I know, I know, you told me the story a thousand times already." Suigetsu replied, annoyed.

He got up as well and glanced around the small room. They were trying to sleep in Sasuke's old room. But there wasn't even a bed, just a small desk and some weapons. But they had decided it would be too creepy to go in Orochimaru's or Kabuto's room…

"Where's Jugo?" Suigetsu asked.

Karin shrugged. "I don't know, probably talking to some bird again."

There was a long silence before Suigetsu talked again.

"So Karin, you never told me, why did you come back anyway?"

"I told you, Madara and the Akatsuki don't exist anymore, Orochimaru is long dead and well, even if it makes my existence totally pathetic, all I have left is you guys." Karin explained.

"I know all of that. But you could have just stayed in Konoha. Or escape somewhere else and get a new life, I don't know..."

Karin held his gaze for a moment. He seemed genuinely interested and curious. She blushed slightly and looked down, "I don't know... I don't think I would belong anywhere else."

Suigetsu nodded. "Yeah, me too..." He hesitated, "you still love him, don't you?"

Karin looked up. "Why do you care anyway?" she snapped at him.

"Damn Karin calm down, jeez, I'm just curious is all..."

Someone suddenly entered the room and they both tensed and went quiet. The tall raven-haired guy went directly to the desk and took out some of the weapons. Without so much as glancing at them, he walked away just as quickly as he had come.

"What a good friend." Suigetsu said with clear sarcasm in his voice.

Karin chuckled. "Yeah... I wonder what he's up to."

Suigetsu shrugged. "Hell if I know, he never tells us anything. Probably training."

Karin rolled her eyes. "Training, training, he's always training. Training for what?"

"Probably still wants to find a way to destroy Konoha for revenge. I think he's crazy if you ask me. Dude just wants to kill everybody. We'll be lucky if he doesn't blame us for his brother's death and kill us in our sleep."

There was a silence, and then Karin sighed. "He's the one who brought us together though."

Suigetsu seemed surprised by her words at first, but then he grinned. "Yeah, what would you do without me, right?"

"Shut up!" Karin rolled her eyes.

She had always hated him before, but the past few months they had been hiding together and, well, pretty much spending all their time together. Karin would have probably gone crazy without Suigetsu, and she knew he felt the same. Sasuke and Jugo were always out training God knows where and they only rarely talked. Suigetsu and Karin had been there for each other, even if they had a love and hate relationship.

"And to answer your question..." Karin started.

"What question?" Suigetsu frowned, confused.

"I don't love him anymore." She simply said looking at her silver haired friend straight in the eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Forever the scars will remain

Chapter 2

"Oi Naruto! What are you doing?" A familiar voice asked behind him.

Naruto had known he was being followed all along, but he'd just kept going anyway. But now his follower had caught up to him.

"What do you want Shikamaru?" He asked, annoyed.

He ran faster amongst the thick forest, but Shikamaru was keeping up.

"Why are you going to the sand?"

"I have to talk to Gaara. And I asked you a question first!"

Shikamaru laughed. "Oi, oi, calm down Naruto. I'm going to the sand as well. The kazekage needs my strategist skills on an important mission."

Strategist skills my ass, Naruto thought, amused.

"Is this another excuse to see Temari?"

Shikamaru was going to the sand village on missions quite often lately. Actually, every time the sand required Konoha's assistance, Shikamaru always insisted on directing the mission himself. Funny how for every other Konoha mission he never volunteered, and if he was picked complained and whined like the lazy ass he was.

"That's a troublesome question, so I won't answer it." Shikamaru finally said.

Naruto smirked, and they kept going in silence for a while. Naruto was thinking about his own motivations. Tsunade and Sakura had asked him why he wanted to go try to find Sasuke by himself, and what he would do if he did find him, but he didn't know the answer himself. He just needed to find Sasuke and see if he was still alive, if he was okay, wherever he was now. He knew he was being naive and silly, in a way, because Sasuke didn't care about him at all, but still, it was constantly haunting him and he needed to know…

The blond thought back about everything that had happened in the village since Madara's defeat and Sasuke's disappearance. Everyone had been working very hard to rebuild Konoha and training intensely in case another threat would come.

He had spent a lot of time with Hinata, finally getting some time to talk with her. It hadn't been easy due to her extreme shyness, but still, he had enjoyed his talk with her a lot. It was heart warming to know that he was that important to someone. But he couldn't feel more than friendship for her or for anyone else anyway.

He glanced sideways at Shikamaru. The lazy genius was apparently lost in his thoughts as well. Probably thinking about Temari, Naruto thought with a little smile. He was glad that Shikamaru had found someone special like that, even though the Nara boy would probably reply that it was so damned troublesome. Naruto had loved Sakura before, but that had been a long time ago. Now if he had to choose a girl to be with, it would be Hinata. But he couldn't give her what she truly deserved.

The only person he felt more than friendship for was - he had to admit it to himself - Sasuke. He didn't know what it was though. He just needed to find him. He needed to know what was happening to him. He also wanted to protect him from all those people who were trying to kill him. For all of them Sasuke was a very dangerous criminal. But for Naruto, it was still Sasuke. Although, again, he felt silly for thinking that he had to protect him; Sasuke could defend himself more than well enough. But still, he didn't want anyone to get in his way, that's why he wanted to ask Gaara to stop the men he had sent to search for the last Uchiha. He couldn't really do anything with the other Kages that had sent shinobi on searching missions, because they would never listen to him, but with Gaara it was worth a try...

xxx

Sasuke and Jugo were sitting with their feet in the water, just enjoying the calm and moonless night after an intense training session.

"This place must mean a lot to you." Jugo said.

It wasn't really a question; Jugo knew Sasuke probably wouldn't answer him anyway. But even if he wasn't really talkative – actually that was an understatement – Jugo really liked Sasuke's company, it was peaceful and calming. They could understand each other; they had both been manipulated since they were kids. Jugo couldn't care less if Sasuke was an international criminal; he wanted to stay by his side because he had saved him from his strong and uncontrollable killing instincts.

Sasuke had been training intensely all these past months. The raven wanted to become as strong as Itachi had been, maybe even stronger. For the first time in weeks, he felt like talking to his friend.

"Yes, I defeated Naruto here, years ago..." Sasuke said.

Jugo was surprised that he had answered him, but he was glad and he waited for him to keep going.

"Maybe I should have killed him, back then." Sasuke whispered.

"Why?" Jugo asked.

"Because he's the one who stopped Madara. And he also stopped me from achieving my objective of destroying Konoha." Sasuke sighed and looked at the stars, lost in his thoughts.

"I know all that. But you were just a kid back then, and he was your friend, right? It's only normal that you didn't have the heart to kill him. You're a human being, after all." Jugo replied.

Sasuke let out a small laugh. "I don't know anymore, Jugo. I don't even know who I am anymore. I'm just an avenger. I want revenge for Itachi, that's all I know."

"And it seems you can never get enough." Jugo said calmly.

Sasuke frowned, but he knew Jugo was right.

"Why do you come here every night?" Jugo asked.

Sasuke stayed quiet and Jugo thought maybe he was done talking now. But Sasuke stood up and started running towards Madara's statue. He used his chakra to climb it up really quickly and then he sat on top of the statue. Jugo followed him and sat beside him.

"I know it's risky..." Sasuke started.

"Yes, we're on the border of the fire country. If you are found here, you'll be killed."

Sasuke didn't say anything. He couldn't care less about that. He could defeat anyone in this world, except maybe Naruto... It was the main problem. He got up and glanced around, reminiscing old memories. This place meant a lot to him indeed, because it had been a turning point in his life. It was the place where he had defeated Naruto, but without killing him because he couldn't do it. Also, at that moment his fate had been decided, and he'd gone after Orochimaru and his promise of making him more powerful... If only Orochimaru had known that he would surpass all expectations, and become even stronger than him. Now Sasuke was stronger than he could ever have imagined possible, but ironically he was certain that was still not strong enough to defeat Naruto...

He sighed, thinking about his enemy. The blond boy had grown into a powerful young man. Sasuke had seen him fight against Madara only for a few moments, but it had been so incredible. Naruto was perfectly controlling sage chakra, better than any ninja had before him. He also had the Kyubi obeying him and they were working perfectly together, so powerful they could probably conquer the world with their strength if they wanted to... Just how much stronger was Naruto getting, he wondered. If only they had known back then, the villagers, they would never have made fun of him ... Now it seemed there was no end to Naruto's powers.

He suddenly got up and ran back down and then towards their hideout, Jugo following close behind as always, and together they ran, just like silent shadows in the night.

A few moments later, Suigetsu and Karin greeted them.

"Yo Jugo, Sasuke, what's up?" Suigetsu said.

"Where were you?" Karin asked when Suigetsu didn't get an answer.

She wasn't more successful, so Suigetsu decided to try again. "Oi Sasuke, I've been meaning to ask you, what's the plan? You know... what do we do next? We ain't staying here forever right?"

"I'm not asking anyone to stay here." Sasuke said coldly, and then he walked away to Kabuto's old room quickly and closed the door.

"Such a nice fellow as always!" Suigetsu said sarcastically.

"Why is he going in Kabuto's room?" Karin asked.

"There's a bed..." Jugo said.

"Good point." Suigetsu chuckled. "So Jugo, do you have any idea what all-mighty-stick-in-the-ass-Uchiha-princess wants to do?"

Jugo sighed. "I think he wants to kill Naruto…"

Suigetsu chuckled again, "Ah…" he sighed, "Same old, same old…"


	3. Chapter 3

Forever the scars will remain

Chapter 3

So far from the valley of the end, but so close in mind, Naruto was having the exact same train of thought as Sasuke. And well, he was wondering how much stronger Sasuke was getting now. He had heard that the last Uchiha now had his older brother's eyes; and this made Naruto sad and relieved at the same time. Even if he wasn't the brightest of all people, he still understood how mangekyo sharingan worked. He couldn't help but care about Sasuke, and he didn't want him to go blind, after all, so he was glad that he had Itachi's eyes. But to think that Sasuke had gone so far as using eye techniques so much and with such intensity that he'd had to change his own eyes! It made the blond sad in a way, thinking that Sasuke had kind of lost yet another part of himself...

The next day Shikamaru and Naruto had an audience with the Kazekage. Gaara and Temari were waiting for them in the meeting room. As soon as they stepped in the room, Naruto noticed that Shikamaru and Temari smiled to each other quickly, but fondly. But the blond didn't have time to think about his friend's relationship with the beautiful female ninja. His attention was soon all on the Kazekage, his friend, Gaara.

"Hey Gaara! I really have to talk to you about something important!" Naruto said before anyone else could speak.

Temari's eyes widened in shock. "You have to show more respect for the Kazekage! You can't talk to him like that!" She shouted at Naruto.

But Gaara was close to smiling. "It's okay, Temari, Naruto's only being himself."

"Yes, he acts like this with the Hokage, as well..." Shikamaru added with a sigh. "Actually it's even worse…"

Naruto ignored them and kept looking at Gaara, "Please it's really important." He said again.

"I think I know what you're here for..." Gaara replied.

"It's about Sasuke," Naruto said.

Gaara nodded, "That's what I thought. I was expecting this..."

"Look... I know he was responsible for the death of several sand shinobi when he attacked Konoha..." Naruto sighed.

"But you want me to order my men to stop looking for him." Gaara finished for the blond.

"Yes, please." Naruto nodded, "I will be responsible for finding Sasuke on my own."

"I will agree to your request only if you meet my condition." Gaara said slowly.

"What condition?" Naruto frowned.

"Take Temari and Shikamaru with you."

Naruto's eyes widened, he hadn't expected this. "What? Why?"

"Let's face it, Naruto; it's not a good idea that you go alone." Gaara said. "The Hokage has a blind trust in you, but I know better. You are too emotionally involved; you won't think of a plan of action, you'll just go straight ahead into battle with Sasuke. Whereas he might have a really good plan to defeat you and you'll just fall straight into his trap without help. And I don't want that. Shikamaru and Temari can help you find him and think of a way to defeat him and his allies; if he has any. You have to consider my offer, Naruto. I understand that it's your decision in the end, but I really don't like the idea of you going alone."

Naruto frowned slightly, but nodded, "Thank you Gaara, I'll think about it."

Later that evening, Shikamaru and Temari were talking alone in Temari's bedroom.

"Did you know about this?" Temari asked.

Shikamaru shrugged, "I knew it was a possibility."

"But do you think Naruto will be able to kill Sasuke?"

"Honestly..." Shikamaru hesitated. "I don't think so."

"So we'll have to do it." Temari said, frowning.

"I guess... but it won't be easy." Shikamaru sighed.

"It's a shame. Such a good looking guy."

Shikamaru frowned, "Well good looking or not, he's still a criminal."

"Are you jealous?" Temari mocked.

"What? No..."

They were interrupted by a knock on Temari's door and a loud voice.

"I need to talk to you guys!"

"Come in Naruto!" Temari said.

The blond had a determined expression on his face when he walked inside the room. He closed the door behind him and looked at them both straight in the eyes before talking.

"I'll take you two with me on this mission. But, I want to make something clear! Shikamaru, I know you have experience as a squad leader, but I will be the leader this time. I know your help will be very important, and yours too, Temari, but I really want you to wait for my orders to act. And if we do find him, well I want you two to understand that I will be the one to fight him. You won't interfere, okay? It's too dangerous."

Temari and Shikamaru glanced at each other, a worried look on their faces. But they slowly nodded and agreed to Naruto's conditions. They didn't have much of a choice anyway.

xxx

"Sasuke stop! That's enough!" Jugo shouted.

The raven had trained all day again. But even the Uchiha had his limits. Sasuke had fallen down on the ground, panting. Jugo was worried about him; he was pushing himself too far. The red head lied down beside his friend; after all he needed rest too. They had been tai jutsu training all day. Usually Sasuke had the upper hand, but that day Jugo had beaten him every time.

"Sasuke, you didn't sleep again last night, right?"

"..."

Jugo knew that meant no. "And how long haven't you been eating?"

"I don't know..." Sasuke answered, still breathing hard.

Jugo sighed. "You can't go on like this. And you certainly won't defeat Naruto in that state."

"What if I can't?" Sasuke turned his head to look at Jugo. "What if, no matter how hard I train, I can't defeat him, and his god damn kyubi?"

"This is not like you," Jugo replied.

Sasuke sighed in frustration and got up painfully. All of his body was aching. He walked away from Jugo, deeper in the forest. That meant he wanted to be alone.

When Jugo got back to the underground hideout, what he saw surprised him. To put it simply, Karin and Suigetsu were making out. But they quickly pulled away when they realized Jugo was there.

"It's not what you think!" Karin yelled.

"How in hell could it not be what he thinks, Karin?" Suigetsu mocked.

"I thought you hated each other." Jugo said simply.

"We do!" Karin shouted. "I hate him. He's so annoying! I hate you, why the fuck did you kiss me anyway?" she asked Suigetsu.

"Bitch! You're the one who kissed me first!" Suigetsu replied.

"Asshole!"

"Slut!" Suigetsu shouted back.

Karin tried to slap him in the face, but Suigetsu quickly turned into water and then turned back into his normal form, laughing.

"You missed!" he teased her.

"Oh I won't miss again, believe me!" she said, running after him in the hideout.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Suigetsu laughed.

Jugo just stood, speechless. These two would never cease to amaze him.

xxx

Sasuke was lying down on the cold forest ground. He had thought that maybe here, deep in the woods, he might find some rest, but he still couldn't sleep. His dark eyes were wide open, looking at the darkening sky. Suddenly he heard footsteps getting closer. He tried to get up, but his body wouldn't move. He turned his head to the side and saw an all too familiar figure looking down at him. How did he get here so fast? Sasuke hadn't even felt his chakra. Wild blond hair, breath taking blue eyes, whiskers marks on his tan cheeks, there was no mistaking it, it was Naruto. Those familiar blue eyes were looking down at him, but there was definitely no familiar grin on his face. Only a very serious and sad expression. Sasuke tried to talk, to ask him what the hell he was doing here, but he couldn't talk, he couldn't even move.

The blond raised a kunai and pointed it at Sasuke's heart, a determined look on his face. Tears were falling down his eyes, though. Naruto was about to kill him, when finally he found his voice again.

"Naruto! Wait!"

The blond's movements stopped right away when he heard the other's voice. Naruto dropped the kunai and fell down on his knees next to Sasuke. He put his head in his hands, he was sobbing and his tears were falling down on Sasuke's body. The raven sat up slowly; his movements were still slow and painful but at least he could move.

"Sasuke..." the blond whispered between two sobs in a broken voice.

"Naruto," Sasuke put a hand on the blond's shoulder to try to stop his trembling.

Softly he pulled Naruto's hands away from his face. Such a handsome face. But so sad… Sasuke wiped the tears and the strands of blond hair away with his long pale fingers. He cupped his chin and lifted his face up, but he was still glancing down, his blue eyes almost closed.

"Look at me," Sasuke said.

Naruto slowly looked up and their eyes met. They just stared at each other for what seemed like forever, and then Naruto suddenly wrapped his arms around Sasuke and held him fiercely, his body still trembling. Sasuke put his own arms around the blond's body, it felt so natural. He wanted to stay in that embrace forever. But after a few moments he realized Naruto wasn't holding him anymore, his arms falling down on each side awkwardly. Sasuke's hands suddenly felt wet and when he looked at them they were full of blood. One of his hands was holding the kunai Naruto had previously dropped. Had he... stabbed Naruto?

"No!" he screamed while softly putting Naruto's body on the ground. There was blood everywhere and he wasn't breathing anymore. He hugged Naruto's already limp body and pulled away, horrified. What had he done?

"Is this your revenge for me little brother?"

Sasuke's eyes widened and snapped at the man behind him. His older brother was standing there, empty sockets instead of eyes and wearing his torn Akatsuki clothing, his face and body strained and tired, just as the last time he had seen him.

"Why are you doing this Sasuke?"

Sasuke lost his voice again. He was just staring wide eyed.

"Why are you doing all of this little brother?" Itachi asked again.

What the hell was happening? Sasuke closed his eyes and screamed as loud as he could.

He opened his eyes and jolted upright. Everything had disappeared. It had all been just a dream. Of course, another nightmare... Now he remembered why he didn't want to sleep anymore...


	4. Chapter 4

Forever the scars will remain

Chapter 4

"Naruto sending a million shadow clones in every existing country and making them run around shouting Sasuke's name isn't going to work." Shikamaru protested against Naruto's idea.

Said blond sighed. "I'm not an idiot Shikamaru! I know that! But what better plan do you have? He could be anywhere!"

"Naruto's got a point. What is your plan, master genius?" Temari added.

Shikamaru looked at her, annoyed. She smirked; both knew all too well that she was just trying to annoy him, and it was working as always.

"Well first, Sasuke's smart. He's not going to be wandering around in the streets where everybody can see him. He's a very important criminal and there are probably high amounts of money given as a reward for whoever catches him." Shikamaru started.

"Now that's interesting." Temari interrupted.

The glare Naruto sent her was enough to make her quiet.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "As I was saying, we have to think like him. He will be somewhere he can hide, but also where he can train. Sasuke isn't one to just sit around doing nothing all day. He will prepare his next move carefully. He's probably training in order to defeat you, Naruto."

No shit, Naruto thought.

"I think," Shikamaru continued, "the most logical place to look for him would be in one of Orochimaru's hideouts. The problem is, he's probably hiding in one that we don't know exists. Maybe one that only Orochimaru, Kabuto and him knew."

Naruto sighed. "How can we find him, then? Just get to the point, Shikamaru."

Temari laughed. "Impatient much?"

Oh no, not at all, he thought, he'd only just been chasing after Sasuke for six fucking years now…

"I'm just saying we should start moving." He said instead.

"All right I'll explain while we move, we're going to the Sound country." Shikamaru stated.

They started running and Naruto immediately took the lead. He was going really fast, and Shikamaru and Temari were having a bit of trouble to keep up with him.

"I guess I'll save my explanations for later, then." Shikamaru said.

"Yeah, I don't think he cares much anyway. He just wants to find Sasuke as soon as possible." Temari replied.

"Yeah... but I don't know what he'll do when he does find him." Shikamaru sighed.

Temari looked at Naruto with a worried look in her eyes. "I don't think he has a clue himself."

"Guys, let's go faster!" Naruto shouted at them. "Oh and by the way, I can hear you from here." He said turning to look at them, smirking at their incredulous expressions.

Naruto's eyes showed that he was in sage mode before he turned his back on them again.

"I should have known, sage mode increases his perceptions..." Shikamaru explained to Temari.

"Yes it does, but if you can still talk, that means you can go faster! Come on!" Naruto yelled again.

"Such a rough leader!" Temari said half-teasing before increasing her pace.

Hours later, at night, Naruto finally let them take a well deserved break. They set up a camp and sat around the fire to eat and talk.

"I think Sasuke will be near the fire country, to be as close of Konoha as possible. So when he decides to strike, it will be easy for him to do so. We don't necessarily have to look for a hideout. It would probably be impossible to find anyway. We can start by looking at the possible training areas near the fire country border."

Naruto and Temari nodded, and then the three of them went to sleep. Naruto had a harder time finding rest, though. Kyubi decided to start talking to him, which he often did since Naruto had the power to control him.

'You should sleep, Naruto. The battle with the Uchiha may be the harder one in your life.'

'I know. But you can help me right? You fought with Uchiha before.'

'Fought? No... they can control and tame me with their eyes. Uchiha Madara controlled me to destroy the Leaf village, seventeen years ago, remember?'

'But we defeated Madara together, a few months ago...' Naruto argued.

'That's because he was already weakened, and your will and ability to control my powers were stronger than his. Something tells me it won't be that easy with Uchiha Sasuke...'

'It's never easy with him...' Naruto said darkly.

xxx

A few days later, Suigetsu and Karin had finally decided to get out of the hideout to go train with Sasuke and Jugo. Suigetsu was helping Karin to improve her tai jutsu.

"Look Karin, I know you have unique powers and can sense everyone's chakra and heal yourself and stuff, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to defend yourself and fight too!" Suigetsu told her.

Karin pouted. "I know how to defend myself!"

"Oh yeah?" Suigetsu ran towards her and easily knocked her down with a few blows, but without hurting her, then he pinned her to the ground and held her hands together so that she couldn't move.

"Get off me!" Karin screamed.

"But I like being on top!" Suigetsu teased.

"What's going on here?" Jugo asked when he saw them.

Suigetsu let go of Karin and stood. "I was just proving my point is all…"

He glanced back at Karin, expecting her to argue but she wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were unfocused and she seemed to be concentrating on something.

"Sasuke!" she called, suddenly dead serious.

The raven, who wasn't far behind Jugo, arrived as soon as he heard Karin's urgent tone.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto. He's here, with two other people; a man and a woman. The man is Nara Shikamaru, I know him from the leaf, he's very smart and powerful. I don't know the woman, but I can tell she's powerful too." She answered.

Sasuke frowned. "How far?"

"They'll be here soon! I'm sorry I didn't detect them sooner; I think Uzumaki has the ability to hide their chakra by using sage mode and nature chakra." Karin explained.

"Shit! We don't have time to hide?" Suigetsu asked.

Karin shook her head, looking a little scared. They weren't expecting this so soon.

"Enough with the hiding," Sasuke said.

"I don't mean to darken your mood buddy, but that guy is strong. I mean, do we stand a chance against the power of the Kyubi?" Suigetsu said what everyone had in mind.

"No we don't," Jugo answered. "But he does."

The three of them looked at Sasuke. After all this time and everything they had been through, they still considered him their leader and they didn't doubt his powers. The four of them stood there waiting. Karin knew they were close now, and she could feel the power of Naruto's chakra.

"They're here," she said simply, trying to hide her fear.

Suigetsu instinctively stepped closer to her. Before them appeared Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku no Temari. Obviously the three shinobi had no intention of doing any surprise attack. The silence was heavy, to say the least, and everyone was waiting for Naruto or Sasuke to speak first.

"So you found me." Sasuke said simply, voice expressionless.

"You can't hide forever, Sasuke!" Naruto screamed, his own voice full of emotion; anger, frustration, bitterness... but there was no fear at all.

"Hn," Sasuke smirked. "Still chasing after me, Naruto? What is it gonna be this time? Are you going to pretend to be my friend again?"

"I'm not here to talk and you know it." Naruto replied.

"Good. Because I have no intention of talking to you." Sasuke frowned.

"This is between the two of us Sasuke. I don't want anybody else to get hurt. So I suggest that the rest of you don't fight." Naruto said, addressing Temari, Shikamaru and Sasuke's team.

They all nodded, accepting Naruto's request. He was right after all; this was just between the two of them.

"All right, let's make this more private then." Sasuke said.

He started running and Naruto followed him. He wasn't running away, he was just leading them somewhere they could fight, and both of them knew exactly where that was. The same place where they had fought when they were twelve and Naruto had wanted to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, while Sasuke wanted to go train with Orochimaru. The valley of the end. Sasuke had won back then, but a lot of things had changed…

"I hope you're ready for this Sasuke." Naruto said angrily.

"I've never been more ready. It's you I'm worried about, Naruto!" Sasuke replied mockingly.

"Then let's do this." Naruto said simply.

He let sage chakra fill him and his eyes became green, while Sasuke's eyes became a deep red. They stared at each other intensely, tension growing at its highest point; both waiting for the other to make the first move and way more scared then they would ever let it show.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Naruto and Sasuke were glaring at each other, both frowning, serious and tensed expressions on their faces.

"This is it then, Sasuke?" Naruto said angrily. "We settle this once and for all?"

The raven smirked. "I thought you said no talking."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "All right."

The blond summoned a few shadow clones to make a diversion while some were hidden preparing rasen shuriken attacks. Sasuke slowly took out his katana and when the shadow clones attacked him he destroyed them all in only a few seconds and a few perfect and swift moves. He turned around just in time to stop another shadow clone that was about to hit him with a rasen shuriken. But another one was running toward him on the other side at the same time and he got hit by the powerful attack. Naruto frowned as he looked down at Sasuke's unconscious form on the ground.

"Do you think I would be that stupid Sasuke?" he shouted breaking the sudden silence. "I know it can't be that easy."

The blond heard Sasuke laugh from behind him, but he turned around and there was nothing. Suddenly the corpse on the ground transformed into ravens that flew in every direction in the sky.

"So you're stealing Itachi's style now?" Naruto mocked.

But Naruto stopped talking when he felt a sword slide right through his chest. His breathing stopped and his green senin eyes widened.

"You should stop talking and keep your guard on, Naruto," Sasuke whispered in his ear mockingly.

But Naruto closed his eyes and sought the Kyubi's help.

'It is an illusion, Naruto. You can break free with my help.' The Nine-Tails told him.

Naruto opened his eyes and everything around him was black and red, Sasuke's mangekyo sharingan pattern all around him. He still had the sword across his body, but he wasn't feeling the pain anymore. Sasuke was in front of him, smirking.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" he teased.

The raven suddenly pulled his katana out of Naruto and then stabbed him again in the stomach. Naruto felt the pain this time and fell on his knees, screaming.

But then he closed his eyes again and the Kyubi showed him an image of their real surroundings; proving that it was only a cruel genjutsu. Naruto concentrated on that image, gathered the natural chakra around him, breathed deeply and opened his eyes again. He was still on his knees, but Sasuke was no longer in front of him. Instead he was several meters away, looking at him in amazement. Their surroundings were back to normal.

"You can't fool me with your illusions, Sasuke," Naruto smirked. "I trained with the Eight tails jinchuriki. Just like when you fought him, you're underestimating me."

Sasuke laughed, "All right then, what's your next move Naruto? You can break free from my genjutsu with the help of the Kyubi, but you can't use him against me; the power of my eyes is too strong."

"It worked against Madara!" Naruto replied.

"Hn! I'm a lot stronger than that idiot." Sasuke smirked.

Naruto shook his head, "You haven't changed one bit Sasuke! You're still such a prick!"

"And you haven't changed either! You still talk way too much!" Sasuke replied angrily.

The air around the raven tensed and thickened. Naruto could see it thanks to senin mode. Sasuke's chakra was so impressing. If the blond wasn't so reckless, he would have been scared. Sasuke's eyes opened wide and locked with Naruto's.

"Amaterasu!"

'Run, Naruto!' the Kyubi screamed inside of Naruto at the same time.

Naruto instinctively took his Kyubi form and ran away. Normal fire couldn't harm him because his skin was protected by the Kyubi's chakra. But the black flames of the Amaterasu were something else entirely. In Kyubi's form, they could work together and be almost invincible, so Naruto knew that was his only chance to survive Sasuke's deathly attack.

Naruto knew what to do; he started gathering his chakra and produced the Kyubi style attack, a sphere of pure chakra and destructive energy, even more powerful than the rasengan. He let the sphere attract the black flames around it, as the fox had expected it would. Its destructive power intensified with the black flames and Naruto prepared himself to throw it at Sasuke; the Amaterasu would turn against him after all.

The raven ran away with his amazing speed, but Naruto was fast too. He ran after him and was about to throw his deadly attack, but Sasuke turned around and stopped, his red and black eyes glared intensely into the Naruto's eyes. Naruto stopped short.

The nine-tails was torn between two amazingly strong minds trying to control him and his powers. Naruto could no longer move. It was like he was one with the Kyubi, and it was normal in this form, he was used to it. Except Sasuke had gotten into his mind, and was trying to tame the Kyubi himself.

'You are nothing. Obey me," Sasuke's cold voice was saying in his mind.

The Kyubi screamed inside his head, and Naruto thought he was going mad. He threw his attack anyway, but he was no longer in Kyubi mode, and his arms got hurt and burned. Naruto fell to the ground, panting, watching as his attack was unleashed toward Sasuke, and creating a huge hole on the ground.

But Sasuke had shifted himself into another dimension with his Mangekyo to protect himself from the attack, from what Naruto understood anyway. Naruto got back on his feet painfully.

Sasuke was also panting, seemingly exhausted. His eyes were their normal onyx colour. Naruto had a few injuries, but the Kyubi was already healing him really fast.

'It's the least I can do. I'm sorry but we couldn't surpass the Uchiha this time.'

'It's okay. I'll just have to beat him up myself. Looks like he's exhausted now, maybe I have a chance.' Naruto answered him by thought.

The blond was also really tired himself, though. His eyes were back to their normal cerulean blue again. His jacket was all torn up and he threw it away, keeping only his black t-shirt on. He faced Sasuke, his fists clenched.

Sasuke started gathering the element of lightning in his hands, and Naruto summoned a shadow clone to do his favourite attack as well. He couldn't help but have a déjà-vu impression as they ran towards each other, screaming. In the end, it always came back to this.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

The two powerful shinobi clashed against each other with their attacks. Sasuke's chidori and Naruto's rasengan had always been of equal forces, and it hadn't changed. Naruto screamed as he tried to overpower Sasuke, but with no success. They ended up being thrown away harshly.

Naruto landed in the water and immediately started swimming back up. As he reached the surface he instinctively concentrated chakra in his feet to be able to walk on the water. He didn't even have time to start looking for Sasuke, because it wasn't long before the raven was running in his direction, katana in hand. Naruto defended himself with a kunai, countering each blow with ability. But Sasuke was better than him at sword fighting, and Naruto only had a kunai.

I have to get rid of that sword, and fast, he thought.

Naruto fainted an attack with his kunai but kicked Sasuke's arm instead with such power that the raven dropped his sword. He dived in the water to get it back but Naruto was right behind him. The blond caught Sasuke in his arms before he could reach his sword and stopped him. The raven defended himself fiercely, trying to get away, but Naruto's arms were stronger and he didn't let go. When Sasuke's attempts got weaker, Naruto kicked him powerfully in the stomach and pushed himself back to the surface. But as he was swimming to the edge, he realized what he'd done…

Shit, he thought.

Without hesitation, without even realizing how much of a contradiction his actions were because he had been trying to kill him only a moment ago, he dived back in the water. He wrapped his arms around the raven and swam back up as fast as he could. He brought him to the shore, lay him down and sat next to him.

Naruto softly parted Sasuke's pale lips with his fingers, breathed in as much air as he could and then pressed his lips on Sasuke's to breathe out the air directly into Sasuke's lungs. He repeated the action several times, until he was trembling and shaking.

He was getting desperate. "Sasuke! Fuck! Don't fucking die! Not now! Sasuke! Wake up you fucking bastard!"

As if he had heard him, Sasuke's body jerked up and he turned on his side to throw up water. He coughed harshly until he could breath almost properly again. He turned and looked at Naruto. The latter was relieved but still shaking, and tears were falling down his eyes.

"Why?" Sasuke whispered in a rasp voice.

Naruto shook his head. "My body just moved..." he whispered.

His own words brought back a memory. Several years ago, when they were still team 7, in one of their first missions they had been caught in Haku's jutsu. Sasuke had saved him and it had almost killed him. Sasuke had pronounced those exact same words as an explanation, my body just moved on its own...

Sasuke let out a frustrated yelp and pushed Naruto away roughly.

"Katon! Fire ball jutsu!" he shouted and then threw the powerful flames at Naruto.

To Sasuke's surprise, Naruto didn't even try to move. These were normal flames and instinctively he was using Kyubi's chakra to protect himself from them.

When the attack was over, Naruto got up and clenched his fists. So that was how Sasuke was thanking him? He should have expected it, but somehow Naruto had hoped that the raven would at least wait and... oh who was he kidding? This was Sasuke, after all.

Naruto smirked, "Normal fire can't harm me you fucking bastard. Oh yeah, and you're welcome."

Sasuke frowned darkly. "I didn't ask for your help!" He hissed.

He gathered his energy once again in a lightning attack. Naruto prepared himself to counter with the rasengan.

So Sasuke wanted to do this again, Naruto thought bitterly, well, he was prepared.

They ran towards each other once again and clashed. This time, for only a moment, the world around them became all white. Naruto couldn't fully understand this, but it had happened every time they had fought. And he believed this was a place where they could read each other's heart. Sasuke had told him years ago, that true shinobi could read what was in their enemy's heart. And Naruto believed in that, because in that mysterious place where time didn't exist, he could see what was in his rival's heart.

Sadness, sorrow, frustration, bitterness and revenge, always revenge. That was Sasuke's heart. It would be broken and scarred forever. And deeper, there was regret, so much regret, but it was hidden by all the rest. And he was so very lonely... Naruto had his answer. The Sasuke he knew and loved was still in there somewhere, somehow, and that was all that mattered.

Sasuke was tired, so tired. What was this place? What was happening? He could feel Naruto's presence, and he could feel what Naruto was feeling, too. The blond was reaching for him, he still had the intention of helping him, saving him. He was lonely too, so lonely. Naruto understood what it was like to be alone and in the darkness and that's why he was the only one who could truly understand Sasuke. But the raven denied it all. He was always denying it. He didn't want any help, and he didn't want to be saved.

With rage and anger he opened his eyes to the real world again, and so did Naruto. It seemed they had just clashed and were still fighting. Did any of it had really happened? Sasuke gave all the energy and chakra he had left into his chidori and tried to overpower Naruto, his dark eyes maddening in frustration.

But Naruto's blue eyes were calm and sad. His rasengan attack was flawless, and his chakra was so strong. This time, he won. The energy coming from Naruto overpowered Sasuke's, and the raven was hit by the attack and fell down on the shore, just where they had been a few moments ago. Naruto fell on the water softly and slowly walked up to Sasuke's still form. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he looked at his fallen opponent. Somehow, Naruto understood that this was the backwards situation from five years ago.

Back then, Sasuke had beaten him and had left him there, unconscious. But he hadn't killed him. Now it was Naruto's turn to have the raven's fate in his hands. Sasuke was still alive, but very weakened. He wouldn't wake up for at least a few hours. Naruto realized it was raining. He shivered, suddenly very cold in his light and torn clothing. He looked down at Sasuke; his clothes were torn up as well, revealing several bruises on his pale skin.

The blond fell down on his knees and sofly took Sasuke in his arms, pulling him into a sitting embrace.

"Why are you doing this to yourself, Sasuke?" Naruto whispered.

He sighed against Sasuke's neck and held him tight. He noticed how frail his body was. He wondered if he won their fight only because Sasuke had been weakened... He picked him up and carried him to a place near in the forest where he knew they would be safe. It was a tiny inhabited house made of wood captain Yamato had built for them once when they were in a mission. It was empty inside but the wood structure was still intact.

He put Sasuke down on the floor softly. He removed his black t-shirt to wipe off the blood, dirt and rain from Sasuke's face, and then put it under his head like a pillow. It was better than nothing, for now. Now Naruto had to figure out what to do when he would wake up...


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Sasuke told us not to fight, so I'm not going to fight." Jugo stated simply.

Karin and Suigetsu didn't share his opinion. They didn't want to be taken prisoners by Shikamaru and Temari as they were threatened.

"If you cooperate and come with us quietly to Konoha, your case will be discussed with the Hokage and I can tell you she is very fair and you will be treated well." Shikamaru explained.

"No way!" Karin spat. "I'm not going back to being a prisoner in Konoha!"

"Well I'm not going either." Suigetsu laughed. "You're in for a two against two?"

Karin sent him a warning look; she could tell these two were no joke. But Suigetsu was always so reckless. He ran towards Shikamaru with his big sword raised but stopped moving half way.

"Shadow bind jutsu successful." Shikamaru smirked.

"What the fuck?" Suigetsu cursed.

He couldn't move his body anymore. Temari laughed while Karin panicked.

"So you little Sasuke minions don't even know the basic technique of one of the strongest ninja in Konoha?" Temari mocked.

"Shut up, you bitch!" Karin shouted. "And you idiot! Just transform into water already!" she snapped at Suigetsu.

The silver-haired water ninja didn't lose any time, and did as she adviced. His body transformed into water and Shikamaru backed off a little.

"Where is he?" he asked Temari.

"I don't know he just vanished it seems."

It was Karin's turn to laugh now. She could see Suigetsu's chakra so she knew he was right behind Shikamaru. The latter materialized himself and in a split second raised his sword to attack, but Temari was faster and she rushed to stop him. She threw him to the ground roughly. But he only smirked and transformed into water again.

"What an annoying brat!" Temari said angrily.

Shikamaru helped her get up. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem. This one will be hard to deal with..." she frowned.

"Yeah... but if he attacks with water, prepare to counter with your wind." He warned her.

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks genius, I had already figured that out."

He smirked. "Sometimes I forget not everyone is an idiot."

"Oh I'm flattered!" Temari replied sarcastically.

They stopped talking and looked at their surroundings very carefully. A few moments later, as Shikamaru had predicted, a huge wave of water controlled by Suigetsu attacked them. Temari immediately counter attacked with her fan, producing a strong wind that pushed the water away. While everyone was distracted, Shikamaru took this opportunity to get closer to Karin.

She felt his chakra and turned around, but when she saw him it was too late. He had already caught her in his jutsu. Her red eyes widened in fear as she realized she couldn't move her body anymore.

"Temari!" Shikamaru shouted.

The blonde was behind Karin in one second, a kunai pressed on the other girl's throat.

"I would recommend you stop attacking us now!" Temari told Suigetsu threateningly.

He had taken his human form again and was looking dead serious.

"All right I'll stop. Just get the hell away from her!"

"You're in no position to negotiate." Temari replied.

She tied Karin's hands behind her back with a rope made of chakra and kept the kunai pressed at her throat. Shikamaru released the red-haired girl and walked towards Suigetsu to bind his hands as well.

"Sorry dude, but that's kinda useless." Suigetsu teased showing him how he could transform his hands into water and untie his hands easily.

"I know, but this isn't!" Shikamaru said and at the same time he hit Suigetsu on the back of the head.

"No!" Karin screamed.

"Don't worry, he just knocked him off." Temari reassured her mockingly. "He'll wake up in a few hours, just with a really strong headache."

"And what now?" Karin asked.

"Now," Shikamaru answered, "you tell me if you can feel Naruto and Sasuke's chakras."

Karin nodded and closed her eyes. She gasped.

"What?" Shikamaru asked.

"Their chakras are very much weakened." She said.

He frowned. "Where are they?"

"This way," she indicated south in a movement of her head. "They crossed the Fire country border."

"What about him?" Temari asked, indicating Jugo, who had stayed aside during the fight and the argument.

He walked towards them. "It's okay, I'll cooperate. I also want to find Sasuke."

Shikamaru nodded. "Okay. Let's go. Can you carry him?"

"Yeah," Jugo said and he put Suigetsu on his back.

They started walking, Karin showing them the way. She was worried for Sasuke; she could barely feel his chakra...

xxx

When Sasuke woke up, his throat felt so dry and his body so weak. He couldn't open his eyes, he was blindfolded. His wrists were also tied up so he couldn't move at all. He was lying down on the ground but there was something soft under his head. He felt a presence near him, Naruto.

"Oh you're awake... I'm sorry I tied you up. I had to, I'm sure you understand why. I didn't want you to go Amaratesu on me the second you opened your eyes."

"It's Amaterasu, idiot." Sasuke whispered.

"Whatever. I have some water and food if you want." The blond offered.

"It will be hard since I can't see and I have my hands tied up."

"Smart ass, I'll help you." Naruto replied.

He sat beside the raven and helped him up while pressing the little gourd of water to his lips. Sasuke was so thirsty he drank all of it, and then Naruto helped him to sit up and lean against the wall.

"The blond cleared his throat, "Well, this is awkward."

"Where are we?" Sasuke asked.

"Somewhere safe, don't worry, you're not in a Konoha prison."

"But you have the intention of bringing me there."

Naruto ignored him. "Sasuke, why do you hate Konoha so much?"

He didn't reply.

"If you promise me not to do anything, I'll remove that blindfold." He said.

Sasuke smirked. "Why? Are you scared?"

"No! I'm not scared of you!"

"Then just remove it."

"Fine!"

Naruto softly took it off, revealing Sasuke's eyes. He opened them slowly, they still hurt a little bit and the light of the sun coming through the window was painful. He realized Naruto was sitting really close to him. He was pretty beat up himself, but the blond wasn't in much better condition. And he wasn't wearing any shirt. His toned and tan chest was still beautiful in spite of all the bruises and cuts from their fight. He saw Naruto's t-shirt rolled up on the floor, probably where he had been sleeping. He shook his head, sighing and thinking, why in the hell was Naruto being so nice to him?

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

It was Naruto's turn to be quiet. There was a long moment of silence where they just stared intensely into each other's eyes, both searching for a different answer.

"Answer my question and I'll answer yours. Why do you hate Konoha so much?"

Sasuke glanced down. He didn't want to talk about this. He just didn't want to talk at all. He felt so empty inside, like he didn't know what to do, what to think anymore. But there he was, weakened and tied up and Naruto, probably the strongest ninja in the world by now, was asking him questions. What choice did he have but to try and give him an answer? He didn't even care about Konoha anymore. The people that had given Itachi that mission - to kill all of his clan - these people were all dead now. It was painful for Sasuke to think about that and he hated it.

"That's a stupid question."

Naruto sighed, he was exasperated. "Sasuke! It's not a stupid question!"

"I thought Madara had told you everything."

"Yeah... well he said that Itachi had been forced to do what he did to your clan, and to you, and that in the end he just wanted to protect you." Naruto said trying to remember everything.

Sasuke's eyes darkened. "I guess you can put it like that..."

"What does that have to do with it?" Naruto asked, still clueless.

"Who forced my brother?"

"It was Konoha's leaders, but..."

Sasuke interrupted him. "Yeah well do the maths, usuratonkachi."

Naruto smiled. "Hadn't heard that one in a while."

Sasuke actually felt like laughing, Naruto was really something, going from a dead serious subject to something as silly as smile about old nicknames and insults. But, being himself, he remained expressionless.

"Why did you go with Madara and join the Akatsuki?" Naruto asked seriously again.

"…"

"Sasuke, please, I'm just trying to understand..."

"You can't understand." Sasuke replied coldly.

"Believe me, I'm sure I can..."

Sasuke looked up at him; there was so much sincerity and sadness in his voice, and his blue eyes were locked with his. Somehow, he had the impression that Naruto wasn't lying. But still, he was certain he couldn't understand.

"You can't understand how it felt... to lose him. To lose my brother." Sasuke whispered darkly.

"I lost the man who had been like a father to me all those years; Jiraiya."

Sasuke stayed silent. He didn't feel like talking or listening anymore.

"I lost you." Naruto whispered. "All those years, it was so painful. My objective was always to bring you back, and I couldn't do it. I just couldn't accept that I had lost you..."

Sasuke looked up and his eyes widened. Naruto sounded so sincere and there were tears in his blue eyes.

"Naruto..."

But he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps and people talking outside, and then the door was kicked open.

Five people were looking at them, confused. The scene was weird without the context; Naruto was shirtless and leaning closer to Sasuke who had his hands tied up. Both were beat up and looked weakened, as Karin had predicted.

"Naruto, we're bringing the prisoners to Konoha, Sasuke included." Shikamaru said, breaking the silence.

"Can I at least heal him?" Karin asked.

When no one was answering, Naruto finally moved.

"Yes, of course, please go ahead." He told her.

He picked up his black t-shirt and put it back on. He went to speak with Shikamaru while Karin was healing Sasuke.

"What happened?" Shikamaru asked.

"It's not important right now... I'll tell you later. What about you?"

"Temari and I decided to take them as prisoners since they were Sasuke's teammates this whole time." He explained.

"So when we're in jail and we're asked what was our crime, we answer being Sasuke's teammate? That's pretty lame," Suigetsu mocked.

"Shut up," Temari snapped.

While they weren't paying attention, Karin had healed Sasuke but also untied him. He used a simple genjutsu to fool them; while they were seeing him still sitting in the room, he ran away unnoticed. What a bunch of idiots, Sasuke thought.

Naruto turned around quickly, he couldn't feel Sasuke's chakra anymore. He knew it was an illusion, so he concentrated and was able to see through it. As he had thought, Karin was sitting on the floor, alone.

"What happened?" he asked her.

"He asked me to untie him, so I did," she shrugged. "He used a genjutsu, obviously."

Suigetsu laughed. "I should have known! He likes using these eyes so much, you know? I'm telling you, all the freaking time!"

"He must not be far! I'll go after him." Naruto said before running away.

"Naruto wait! You don't even know in which direction..." Shikamaru shouted after him, but it was already too late.

"Damn he's a hasty one." Temari sighed.

"Yeah, I hope he can catch up to him..." Shikamaru replied.

But Naruto knew in which direction to run. He was in senin mode and could feel Sasuke's chakra. It was a good sign; it meant that he wasn't too far. He ran as fast as he could.

"Damn you Sasuke... why do you keep running away from me?"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It didn't take long for Naruto to catch up to Sasuke.

What the hell is he doing? Naruto wondered, confused, as he noticed Sasuke's chakra had stopped moving. He caught up to him at the end valley, where they had fought. Sasuke emerged from the water with his sword in his hand. He walked up to the shore calmly, and put the katana back in its hilt on his back.

Naruto walked up to him slowly, keeping his guard up. "What do you think you're doing? Running away like that?"

"I'm not running away." Sasuke said simply. "I just wanted to get my sword back."

Naruto felt like laughing.

"You could have said it! We would have come back!" he said.

Sasuke didn't reply. Naruto took a better look at him. He looked in much better shape; probably because Karin had just healed him.

"Sorry about your friends." Naruto said. "I didn't have the intention of putting them in jail, but I was forced to take Shikamaru and Temari with me, and, well they respect orders better than me."

Sasuke raised a brow. "Anyone respects orders better than you."

Naruto chuckled. "That's probably true. But still, I'm sorry. I mean, they didn't really do anything they don't deserve to be behind bars."

Sasuke's half-smiled. "I don't really get why you are concerned, but personally I'm not worried. They're good people; I'm sure they'll end up being Konoha ninja working for the Hokage. Maybe they'll work for you."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Maybe! You know, Tsunade no baa-chan told me that whenever I'm ready, I can take her place, as the Sixth Hokage."

"So, what are you waiting for? It's your dream come true, no?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto's smile disappeared. "I guess... there's something missing. I can't become Hokage if I can't even save one friend, right?"

Sasuke's eyes darkened and he glanced away. "What if that friend isn't worth saving anymore?"

Naruto stepped closer. "Don't ever say that."

They were looking at each other intensely, and the moment seemed to last forever, but it was only a few seconds really. Suddenly they both tensed and glanced towards the forest; there were strangers approaching.

"How many?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know..." Naruto turned to sage mode to feel their chakra. "Ten I think."

Sasuke nodded. "I can take them on." He raised his sword.

But Naruto stayed by his side. "You don't have to do this alone."

"Naruto you can't fight them to help me. Your reputation will be destroyed. I'm the criminal, remember?"

"I don't care! Besides, I don't want anyone interfering with my mission." Naruto said.

Sasuke smirked. "Fine, let's kick their asses."

Ten Sound ninja, as Naruto had predicted, were running towards them. They stopped right in front of the blond and the raven.

"What the hell do you want?" Naruto asked.

"One of our men saw Uchiha around here and we were sent to kill him. So don't interfere." One of them, their leader it seemed, answered.

"Who sent you?" the blond asked.

"It's none of your business. Our boss wants the reward on his head."

"I'm sorry but I can't let you. If you agree to leave now, we won't harm you." Naruto said.

"Who are you anyway?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

There were whispers amongst the little group.

"He's the Kyubi jinchuriki!"

"He's the guy who defeated Pain and Madara!"

"But why is he protecting the Uchiha now?"

"So what is your decision?" Naruto interrupted them.

"That guy is a criminal! And because of him and Orochimaru, the Sound's reputation has been destroyed! We won't go without fighting!" their leader answered.

"Stop talking and fight then!" Sasuke smirked.

Naruto, still in sage mode, produced two shadow clones. While he prepared his rasen shuriken, he glanced at Sasuke. The latter wasn't even bothering to use any techniques; he was just fighting brilliantly with his sword. The enemies didn't stand a chance. They could barely even get close to Sasuke. Naruto threw his rasengan on the ground, in between two of the men that were still standing. They were thrown away back in the forest powerfully. But he had spared their lives on purpose.

As Naruto had expected, they ran away, frightened. He glanced at Sasuke again. But the raven had also stopped fighting; the rest of the sound ninjas had imitated their two friends and ran away.

"What a bunch of idiots," Sasuke snorted.

Naruto laughed. Somehow, at this very moment, he felt more relaxed than he had in a while. Sasuke glanced at him sideways with a little smile, putting his sword back in its sheath.

"There! I can see them!" Karin's voice shouted.

Naruto turned to look at their friends, who were running towards them.

"Naruto! What happened?" Shikamaru asked.

"Man, we saw a bunch guys running away," Suigetsu said, "who were these people anyway?"

"A group of ninjas from the Sound," Sasuke informed.

"No one was killed," Naruto assured.

Temari nodded. "Good," she said.

Beside her, Shikamaru frowned, "Sasuke, these were Sound ninja ordered to kill you, right?"

"Hn"

"And Naruto attacked them and fought by your side?" the brunet asked.

"I didn't ask for his help."

"I figured as much..." Shikamaru sighed. "If he helped you, he's against the law now."

Sasuke's delicate face remained blank, but his dark eyes narrowed slightly. "You know how he is, he doesn't think about these things. Besides, he asked those men to back off, and he told them he wouldn't hurt them if they just left. But they refused. They're idiots."

Naruto was surprised and pleased that Sasuke was actually taking his side, but this was getting a little annoying…

"You guys are aware I'm standing right here?"

Shikamaru sighed and turned to Temari, who was standing right next to him.

"So what do we do now?" she asked him.

He sighed, "this is so troublesome..."

"Oh please don't start with the troublesome now..." the blonde teased him.

"But it is... the logical thing to do would be to return to Konoha and report to the Hokage. They are all our prisoners technically. Even Naruto now..."

"What?" she interrupted.

Suigetsu laughed, "Five prisoners for two people. That's a little bit too much don't you think?"

"Shikamaru, would you please explain to me why I am your prisoner now?" Naruto frowned.

"Because you fought with me." Sasuke said.

"But, it doesn't make any sense," Naruto protested, confused.

"Shikamaru, enlighten us on our situation please!" Suigetsu mocked.

"We're still going to Konoha! Let's go!" Shikamaru ordered.

They were all really tired, so at night they set a camp to get some sleep. Shikamaru and Temari were taking turns to keep guard. Naruto thought this whole being a prisoner thing was just insane, so he convinced them to let him help keep guard while the others rested. Shikamaru decided to trust him.

So at midnight it was Naruto's turn to stay awake. For a lack of a better thing to do, he turned into Sage mode, so he was able to feel everyone's chakra. So he knew everybody was sleeping except Sasuke. He was pretending to sleep though. He was a little bit apart from the others. Naruto watched him, amused. That bastard was probably planning something…

And indeed, a few minutes later, the raven opened deep red eyes. He cast a genjutsu which showed him still sleeping. But of course that didn't fool Naruto, who saw through everything. As Sasuke got up quietly, and was about to run away again, the blond approached in one swift movement and grabbed his arm.

"Caught you!" Naruto teased.

"How did you...?"

"You can drop the genjutsu, bastard. I'm the only one awake here."

"Hn..." Sasuke's eyes turned black.

"So... running away again, are we?"

"That's what I do." Sasuke teased with a serious expression.

Naruto laughed softly. "What makes you think I'll let you go?"

Sasuke frowned. "You're a prisoner too; now, you chose to help me back there. Your lazy ass friend will report this to the Hokage, and everyone will know. The Sound will know that you stopped their men from catching me…"

Naruto's blue eyes widened as he let go of Sasuke's arm. He hadn't realized it, but maybe he really was considered a criminal now.

"I didn't think it was that bad..."

Sasuke shook his head and his lips twitched slightly into what was close to a smile. "Dobe, do you ever think?"

Naruto frowned and was about to reply something, but Sasuke interrupted him before he could say anything.

"Just run away with me." The raven said simply.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, searching Sasuke's deep onyx ones, trying to discover his true intentions.

Sasuke raised a fine brow and shrugged slightly. "You know, I'm going with or without you."

"As if I'd let you go without me, you bastard."

Sasuke only smirked, and started running at an incredible speed. But Naruto kept up with him. The others were still sleepy soundly behind.

Naruto had no idea what he was doing. All he knew was that he didn't want to lose Sasuke again. So he just kept running. And for once, he wasn't running after him, he was actually running by his side…


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

When Shikamaru woke up, he immediately knew something was off. Naruto hadn't woken him during the night to change turns, and now it was already morning. And Naruto and Sasuke were missing. And that was bad, really, really bad.

"Damn Naruto... you're so troublesome..." he sighed loudly.

"What's wrong?" Temari asked softly, opening her eyes and stretching.

Shikamaru laughed desperately. "What's wrong? Naruto and Sasuke aren't there is what's wrong..."

"Oh." She didn't know what else to say.

"At least the other ones are still here." Shikamaru acknowledged the three sleeping ninjas.

"Well... let's wake them up and bring them to Konoha, I guess." Temari sighed.

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded. They didn't have much of a choice anyway.

So they woke Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo, and their reactions were all different. Suigetsu laughed, obviously, mocking Shikamaru for his lack of leadership in this mission. Karin just wondered why Sasuke had brought Naruto with him. As for Jugo, he remained calm and quiet.

"Let's go to Konoha anyway. We don't have much of a choice here... since we have no idea where they could be. Naruto being the most unpredictable ninja... and Sasuke well..." Shikamaru explained but was interrupted.

Suigetsu laughed, "Sasuke being the prince of unpredictable stupidity himself."

"Whatever... let's just go. We need to report this to the Hokage and the Kazekage." Temari said.

The trip was uneventful, and they were advancing really fast. Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo didn't try to escape; they knew it was pretty useless anyway. Even if she didn't want to go back, Karin knew that she would be treated well in Konoha.

When they arrived they immediately went to see Tsunade. Shikamaru explained the situation to her while the others waited outside the room.

"It seems to be going pretty well so far..." Suigetsu stated since it was really quiet.

"Don't talk too fast." Temari warned.

She had been right, because a few seconds later, they heard Tsunade's angry voice.

"HE WHAT?" Tsunade yelled.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama." Shikamaru apologized. "I had no idea Naruto would try to escape from me."

"But you did tell him that he was a prisoner now! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

"Well he did attack those ninjas of the Sound..."

"He was defending himself during a mission! Of course he wouldn't have been a prisoner! You know how much I care about Naruto, Shikamaru! I am disappointed in you."

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome..." he whispered.

"Don't give me that." Tsunade warned. "Just bring in the others..."

Shikamaru opened the door and motioned for Temari and the others to get inside.

"Hokage-sama," Temari bowed.

Tsunade nodded slightly, then looked at the three so-called criminals. Suigetsu looked amused, Karin looked bored and Jugo well, he was just still and quiet as always.

"My head hurts..." Tsunade sighed, "Shikamaru, could you bring Sakura for me please?"

"Hai," Shikamaru went in Sakura's office and asked her to come with him.

"Is Naruto back from his mission?" She asked anxiously.

"Well about that..."

"What happened?"

"If you stop interrupting me I'll tell you... well Naruto kind of escaped..." Shikamaru clumsily explained.

"Escaped?"

"With Sasuke."

"Oh."

"Yeah..."

Sakura's green eyes lit up, "But maybe he just wants to talk to him, and convince him to come back here!"

"Maybe..." Shikamaru nodded but he didn't really believe that.

When they got to the Hokage's office, Suigetsu was telling the whole story of how he was held by Orochimaru, and then of how he joined Sasuke, but with his own twist.

"I couldn't escape by myself, you see, I was stuck there because of that old pervert Orochimaru. So when Mr. Sasuke pretty boy came to save me, I was really grateful! Plus he had killed the old perv so I was glad. I never really liked him; no offense, I know you were his team mate before."

"No, that's okay, keep going." Tsunade was surprisingly interested in Suigetsu's story.

Suigetsu shrugged and resumed his story, "So yeah, I told him that I'd stick along because, you know, I didn't really have anywhere else to go. And he was going after the Akatsuki, which I was interested in myself. I wanted to defeat Kisame, you know... that's a long story we won't get into it. So you know at first, we weren't doing anything wrong! And then after he defeated his god damn brother, he got all sensitive and crying and stuff. If I got it right, it's hard with him because he hardly ever talks, but I think he wanted to avenge Itachi and for that he needed to work with Madara for a little while, or something like that. We didn't have much of a choice! We didn't get our say at all in this, because if Sasuke wasn't forcing us, Madara sure made it clear that nothing good would happen to us if we just quit, you know... The Akatsuki, they were pretty hardcore… So here we are, criminals I guess, but we were really just stuck there with no other options, you see."

Suigetsu stopped talking, out of breath, drank some water from his bottle and then looked back at Tsunade. She had her elbow on the table, with her head resting in her hand, and she seemed to be hesitating. When she looked up, she noticed Sakura was there.

"Sakura, what is your opinion on this?" Tsunade asked her student and now assistant.

Sakura sighed and looked at Karin. "I know that this girl is innocent. I remember when we captured her and I had to heal her, Sasuke had almost killed her and she was ready to give us information. Even if she escaped during the war with Madara, I'm sure of one thing, she's always been manipulated by Sasuke."

"Yes, I am a victim, Hokage-sama," Karin said, glancing down.

Beside her, Suigetsu was obviously repressing laugh. Karin elbowed him in the ribs roughly.

"If I can say anything, Hokage-sama," Temari stepped in. "I think this man deserves a second chance," she pointed at Jugo, "He cooperated with us from the beginning and never tried to harm us."

Tsunade nodded slowly. "Would you guys be interested of being on probation and training with Konoha shinobi, until we decide that you are suited to go on missions and work for us?"

Suigetsu shrugged and smiled. "Works for me!"

Karin and Jugo just nodded respectfully. It was better than what they had expected.

But then Jugo frowned, speaking for the first time. "Is that what would have happened to Sasuke too?"

Tsunade shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not. His crimes are a lot worst than yours, and he is internationally wanted."

Jugo nodded slowly, but stayed quiet. Karin, on the other hand, still had one question.

"Who is going to train us?"

Tsunade smirked. "Shikamaru and Sakura will be responsible for you three."

"What, but Tsunade-sama..."

"Sakura it's a very important mission I'm giving you."

"Hai..."

"Troublesome..." Shikamaru mumbled but Tsunade ignored him.

"I will go back to the Sand now. I must report this to the Kazekage." Temari said.

"You may go." Tsunade nodded. "As for the others, you may go as well, it's getting late. I'm going to give you three a temporary apartment and you will be under Anbu watch during the nights. During the day, you will be under Shikamaru and Sakura's responsibility."

They all walked out of the room, and Sakura brought the three ex-taka team members to their apartment.

As for Temari, she was about to take the road again, but Shikamaru followed her and took her by the arm. She turned around and smirked.

"Miss me already?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "If you're tired, you know you can stay at my place tonight. You don't have to leave right away."

Temari shrugged, "Yeah... I guess Gaara could wait one more day!"

Shikamaru smiled as they walked hand in hand to his own apartment.

"I'm so exhausted!" Naruto whined as they finally stopped running.

"I thought you were supposed to have an incredible stamina," Sasuke replied.

"Shut up."

Sasuke smirked as he took in their surroundings. It was a moonless night, and he couldn't see that much. But it was as good a spot as others, he supposed, with a nearby river, but thick enough woods to provide a good temporary hideout.

"It's getting cold!" the blond said. "Why are we going north? We should go south, it's warmer..."

Sasuke repressed a laugh. "I am impressed by your logic."

"Sasuke!" the blond whined. "Seriously, where are we going?"

"Kumogakure." Sasuke answered simply.

Naruto frowned. "The land of Lightning? But the Raikage wants you dead!"

Sasuke shrugged. "Everyone wants me dead. Except you, apparently."

Naruto ignored him. "But he's probably the worst one, I mean ever since you almost killed the Hachibi, his brother, he's been mad and wants nothing else but to see you dead."

"Whatever. The mountains are a good hiding place. We could also find an Island further north or east..."

"Sasuke..." Naruto interrupted him. "Do you not care about everything you've done to these people?"

Sasuke's eyes darkened. He walked away to start gathering some branches. Without a word, Naruto helped him and they quickly had enough to start a fire. Sasuke used a basic fire technique to light it up. It came in handy sometimes.

But as they sat next to it to get warmer, Naruto seemed intent on continuing his questioning. "When you had to bring the eight-tails to Madara... it could have been me. Would you have done it anyway?"

Sasuke looked up only to see that Naruto's blue eyes were searching his intensely. Slightly intimidated, he glanced down at the flames again.

"I don't know." He answered honestly.

Naruto nodded. "I think you don't even know yourself."

The raven frowned slightly, but didn't reply. The silence became heavy between them.

"We should sleep and get going as soon as possible." Sasuke finally said before lying down on the ground.

Naruto did the same. "Right..."

About an hour later, Sasuke still wasn't sleeping. He was exhausted, but his confusing thoughts and mixed feelings wouldn't leave him alone. They were all focused on one very annoying blond ninja, of course. Said blond happened to be lying down right next to him, his back facing Sasuke. The light of the flames made his hair appear a pure gold, just slightly reddish, it was really beautiful.

Sasuke curled up even more on himself. He didn't know what to think about this whole situation anymore. Why had he wanted Naruto to come with him? Right before that, he had wanted to kill him. Now, that really didn't make much sense…

"Sasuke?" Naruto's voice said.

"What?"

"Are you sleeping?"

Sasuke chuckled. "Usuratonkachi."

"Stop calling me that. Sasuke, did you really want to kill me?"

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. Could Naruto read minds now or what?

"Because I don't think I really wanted to kill you." Naruto continued.

He turned around to face Sasuke. Those damn blue eyes were staring at him intensely again.

"Well if you really wanted to you could have done it so..."

"But even before, I don't think I ever wanted to kill you. Even if you had tried to destroy Konoha like you intended to..."

"How can you say that?" He frowned. "Of course you would have protected the village from me."

"Yeah, but I would have done it without killing you." Naruto made a little smile.

"Why?"

"Because you weren't yourself." The blond answered simply.

Sasuke's eyes darkened and he turned on his other side, his back now facing Naruto.

"You're wrong. I was being myself and I really would have done it. And I really would have killed you too."

"I think you're the one who's wrong."

Sasuke sat up and looked down at Naruto angrily. "What the fuck do you know? You don't know anything."

He stood up and walked away quickly. He didn't know where he was going; he just wanted to get the hell away from Naruto. He was way too annoying with all of his stupid questions...

But of course Naruto had to follow him. The blond grabbed his arm to stop him. Sasuke pulled his arm away harshly and punched Naruto in the face. The blond kicked him and they both fell to the ground, and then they kept on fighting and turning until they were too exhausted to even move.

They ended up lying down on the ground, panting, glaring at each other.

"Why are we always fighting?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke sat up painfully. "It's your fault. Stop annoying me."

Naruto sat too. "No."

Fucking stubborn idiot…

"Stop annoying me tonight?"

The blond hesitated. "Okay."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and almost smiled. They quietly walked back to their camp and this time they both fell asleep quickly, too exhausted from the fight.


	9. Chapter 9

When Naruto woke up he felt something soft as silk, like a pillow that was on his chest and that he was caressing with his hand. But it couldn't be a pillow, he thought as he remembered he was sleeping on the ground of a forest. He slowly opened his blue eyes, only to see black in front of him. Sasuke's raven hair... and said raven was sleeping with his head on Naruto's chest, and he seemed to find it really comfy. How the hell was his hair so soft?

Naruto sighed; he didn't want to wake him up. Sasuke looked... so adorable like this. Naruto almost laughed at his own thought. Adorable? That wasn't a word that he had used often to describe Sasuke. But indeed he was, deep in his sleep with his beautiful traits relaxed, his eyes closed and his black hair all messy.

But then the moment was over; Naruto had probably shifted a little or something, because Sasuke was slowly waking up. The blond decided to pretend he was still asleep, to save Sasuke from being embarrassed. Plus he wondered how the other would react.

Sasuke didn't want to wake up. He had been sleeping so well, and he was so warm and comfortable. Surprised, he realized he hadn't had any nightmares, and that hadn't happened in a very long while. Actually, he couldn't even remember the last night he'd spent without making any. But he wasn't sleepy anymore, so he opened his eyes... only to see that what he had found so comfortable was Naruto's body.

When he realized that, he quickly pulled away and looked down at Naruto, almost scared. But the blond was still asleep. Sasuke sighed, relieved that he wouldn't have to explain himself.

Naruto chose that moment to stop pretending. He opened his eyes slowly, yawned and stretched. Then he grinned widely.

"Hey Sasuke, what do you want to do today?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Dobe, this isn't a vacation trip."

But Naruto ignored him. "Oh I know! We should go to the hot springs!"

Sasuke shook his head, slightly amused. "No. We don't want to stay here too long."

Naruto pouted, then nodded and they started walking. After a while though, Naruto got tired of the silence, and he couldn't help but try again.

"There's this really nice place, I mean a hot spring, I'm sure we're not far from it. Jiraiya-sensei took me there once..." Naruto smiled at the memory. "It was awesome! We should go, what do you think?"

Sasuke smirked. "What do I think?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. He wasn't stupid, well not that much anyway, and he knew it wouldn't be that easy, but he had actually thought about it and he was ready to counter any argument Sasuke had.

"I think I would have to be even more of a complete moron than you to actually go wander around at a public place like that."

"I think we should go disguised," Naruto replied.

"Disguised? You mean like transform and take someone else's appearance?" Naruto nodded, and Sasuke seemed thoughtful for a moment. "What about during the night? If you want to sleep there, we'll have to transform back to our real selves."

Naruto smiled. "We'll have a close room for sleeping, they won't see us."

"But still, if they were to search..."

"They won't think of looking in the girl's dormitory."

Sasuke stopped short and looked at Naruto with wide eyes. "What? No... that would be just... wrong."

"I think it's a great idea!"

Naruto did the hand sign and, "Henge!" transformed into a beautiful young girl with long thick blonde hair and more feminine traits – and sexy curves of course.

Sasuke blinked and looked again. It was so well done, no one could possibly guess it was a man pretending.

"What are you waiting for? Try it!" Naruto said.

Sasuke shook its head. "No I'm not doing this."

The girl version of Naruto frowned and pouted, and Sasuke chuckled. "It's so weird... just change back into yourself."

"Okay," Naruto changed back into his normal male appearance. "But I still want you to try it."

"I've never done it before. It won't work."

"You never practiced it?" Naruto was offended.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Why would I need to practice such a thing?"

"It's okay you can practice now. I'll teach you! I won't laugh I promise. When I taught Konohamaru, at the beginning he was really bad and he would change into a fat and ugly girl. But he had the best teacher so he improved and now he's an expert!"

"Wow... if I had a kid training at Konoha to become a ninja, I wouldn't want you to be his sensei..." Sasuke said.

"Of course you would! Now try it!" Naruto ordered.

"All right fine..." Sasuke sighed.

The raven transformed, and Naruto's blue eyes went wide. That damn bastard Uchiha had done it perfectly the first time of course. He now had a female body, just slightly less curvy than Naruto's version, but with traits even more delicate than Sasuke's normal face, and sleek hair that went to the middle of his back.

"How does it look?" Sasuke asked.

"It's… perfect," he admitted reluctantly.

Sasuke turned back into himself and smirked. "Well I guess it wasn't that hard."

"You prick, you just have to be good at everything don't you?"

Sasuke's smirk turned into a smile as they started walking again, toward the hot springs this time.

There was, yet again, still one problem left though. "Naruto, I don't have any money."

"I know, but it's okay I'll pay for you!"

"Uh... okay thanks I guess."

They walked quietly in silence again. But it wasn't awkward; it was comforting to Naruto actually. Sasuke had never been really talkative, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

They had exited the forest now, and entered a small village. Before too many people could notice them, Naruto stopped.

"Okay we have to transform now. Don't forget to change your clothes too." Naruto said.

"What should I wear?"

"I don't know, just think of a girl that you know and picture her outfit in your mind..."

"Okay..."

Sasuke transformed into the same girl version as before, but with very tiny shorts and a long sleeve pale vest.

Naruto burst out laughing. "You look like Karin!"

"Well what are you wearing anyway?" Sasuke asked.

"I have more imagination than you teme."

Naruto transformed into his sexy jutsu, wearing kind of a school girl uniform, with a short orange skirt and a sexy white button shirt. Sasuke smirked and then he transformed again.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke had changed his outfit for the same one as Naruto, only the skirt was navy blue instead of orange.

"Hey! You're copying me, not fair!" Naruto exclaimed but he was smiling.

This was going to be fun...

xxx

When they walked in, all the people that were already inside stared, well especially the men. To them, the two girls looked absolutely gorgeous and sexy. Naruto smiled and made some sexy poses but Sasuke just rolled his eyes. He took the blond by the arm and led him to the cashier.

"Hello ladies, and welcome to our beautiful hot spring, what can I do for you?" the man asked with a very wide smile.

"We just want the regular one night deal." Naruto smiled seductively, making his voice sound feminine.

The man blushed. "Of course, what are your names?"

"I'm Naruko and this is huh... Karin!"

Naruto took Sasuke by the arm and giggled – acting like a stereotypical dumb blonde. The man nodded and wrote the names down; he had a little smile like he was expecting the blonde girl to be stupid.

Sasuke was impressed; Naruto really knew how to do this. How many times had he pretended to be a girl anyway? Naruto paid and they went to their assigned room. It was, as Naruto had expected, very private and of course on the girl's side of the place.

"Karin? And you said you had imagination, dobe." Sasuke teased.

"Shut up, if you had a better idea for your name you could have come up with it yourself! You didn't even talk back there."

"Oh I'm sorry, Naruko!" Sasuke teased insisting on the last part of the fake name. "But transforming into a girl isn't one of my hobbies. Besides I don't think I could make my voice sound girly…"

"You're pretty girly right now though! Look at you!"

Naruto pushed Sasuke in front of a mirror. The raven gasped and his dark eyes widened.

"This is so weird."

Naruto laughed. "I know! Whatever let's just go!"

Naruto just removed his clothes and wrapped his body into a towel. Sasuke couldn't help but stare at him (her) the whole time.

"Okay this is too weird." He said again.

"Come on! Let's just go!" Naruto whined.

"Fine..." Sasuke quickly undressed and put a towel around his female body as well. "But it's kinda wrong no? I mean… we're not real girls and all…"

Naruto burst out laughing.

Sasuke frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Sasuke Uchiha, international criminal, worried about going in the girls' baths being so terribly wrong."

He did have a point.

"Besides, it's not like any of us are into girls anyway." Naruto added matter-of-factly.

Sasuke's eyes widened but he didn't reply. How in hell could Naruto know about that? Hmm… maybe because back in Konoha all the girls had been all over him, and he had never paid any attention to them…

There were a few girls in there, but they didn't pay much attention to the two new comers. So the two boys in disguise just entered the hot water. Sasuke thought it was soothing and purifying, and he was secretly glad that Naruto had suggested this.

"It feels so good!" Naruto whispered.

Sasuke just nodded and closed his eyes. He had really needed this, and he was content to just let his body relax – even though it wasn't his real one. At least he was sure that no one would look for him there, and even if they did they wouldn't find him, so it was a great temporary solution.

Sasuke opened his eyes when he suddenly remembered the price for a night at this place. It had cost Naruto a lot of money for them both.

"Hey dobe?" he asked in a low voice, making sure the other girls couldn't hear him.

"What?"

"How is it that you have so much money?"

The blond shrugged. "Well you know; missions. I'm a Juunin now so I go on very dangerous missions, but they pay a lot too."

"But don't you spend it for yourself?"

Naruto turned to look at him and he shrugged again with a sad smile. "I don't go out that much you know, so I wouldn't know how to spend it. I've been very busy with rebuilding Konoha, training young shinobi and helping Tsunade no baa-chan a lot too because I want to be the next Hokage you know... Better get ready for it."

"Oh..." Sasuke looked down. "Hey did you ever like, go out with someone?"

Naruto laughed. "What's with you? You're so talkative all of a sudden! Where's my Sasuke teme? Who are you, you evil girl and what have you done to my best friend?"

Sasuke laughed a little at this. Naruto was right; he was never usually this talkative. Except maybe when he was eight years old and asking his aniki questions all the time. He stopped laughing and frowned slightly. He definitely didn't like thinking about those memories. They were so bittersweet... But Naruto brought him out of his now dark thoughts by answering his question.

"Well I considered going out with Hinata... we actually became really close. But I just couldn't, you know? She's more like a good friend to me. And I realized I don't like girls anyway so... So what about you?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shook his head. "No. I mean I've never been with someone."

Naruto nodded and they stayed quiet for a while, just enjoying the warmth and the calm.

"Hey all the girls left" Sasuke suddenly noticed. "How long have we been in here?"

"Not that long, it's probably just because it's time to eat."

"So do you think we'll be alone for a little while?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah probably, why?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke dived in the water, and when he came out again he was back to his normal appearance.

Naruto laughed. "What if someone sees us?"

Sasuke shrugged. "You said no one would be here for a while. Besides, I don't really like being a girl."

"But you were so sexy in that tiny girl uniform!" Naruto teased.

"Not as sexy as you apparently, have you seen the reactions of the men in there when they saw you?" Sasuke teased back.

Naruto imitated Sasuke; he went into the water and changed back to his real appearance.

Sasuke couldn't help but stare. The last rays of sunlight made his golden blond hair shine, and it was dripping on his lean, muscular torso. His blue eyes seemed amused when he glanced back at him. Sasuke looked away.

"Well," Naruto replied, "they only reacted like that because they thought I was a dumb blonde – or a slut."

Sasuke laughed as he went to sit back on the border of the baths. "And is that true?"

"What?"

"That you're a dumb blond?"

"No! Shut up you bastard!" Naruto threw water at Sasuke's face.

Sasuke joined in the game, and soon they were throwing water at each other pretty aggressively. But when Sasuke got close enough he caught Naruto's wrists to stop him from throwing water, and they just stopped moving completely. Suddenly Sasuke felt very hot. A little bit too hot, and it was not just because of the water.

He let go of Naruto's arms and walked away. "I'm gonna go take a shower now."

Cold shower, he added to himself.

Naruto watched in awe as the raven got out of the water and quickly wrapped a towel around his pale body. So beautiful, he thought.

As Sasuke returned inside he changed back into a girl. Naruto waited a few more minutes, and then he imitated Sasuke, changing into a girl as well for precaution. The skin on his wrists still tingled where Sasuke had touched him. He'd better enjoy these moments while he could, he thought sadly, because the next day they would be back on the road, and who knew what would happen then…


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The two 'girls' went in the little restaurant for dinner since there was no room service available. They both ordered some sushi and Naruto ordered some sake. He had tried it before since he looked older now, but most of the time they asked to see an id. But surprisingly - or not - the waiter didn't ask and immediately brought the girls some sake.

When he walked away, Naruto whispered, "Wow, I should really be a girl more often."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and poured a little bit of the strong alcohol in their two little cups.

They ate and drank pretty much in silence, but at some point they started getting a little bit tipsy. They both weren't use to drinking and even if it was just a little bottle, it still had some effect.

Naruto just started telling Sasuke about everyone in the village, and at the beginning the raven was rolling his eyes like he didn't care, but after a few more gulps of sake, he was smiling and even laughing at Naruto's ramblings.

"…And Kiba, oh my God Kiba is so retarded! See he likes Hinata, and to seduce her he sent his dog to tell her. How retarded is that? Sometimes he thinks his dog is a human. And Shino! He's always like, Naruto, when you came back from your training with Jiraiya, you didn't even recognize me. That was freakin' two years ago! Can't he get over it already? And oh my God Shikamaru's the worst one. It's so obvious that he loves Temari, but he just won't admit it and he says it's too troublesome! He's so annoying! Why doesn't he just go out with her already?"

Sasuke interrupted him, laughing. "Yeah well it's just like Suigetsu and Karin, I mean they pretend they hate each other, but… they're not fooling anyone."

"Yeah...!"

"Hey pretty girls, sorry to interrupt," a guy from a table nearby stood and came to talk to them. "It's just we saw that you seemed to be drinking and having a good time and my friends and I, well we were wondering if you ladies wanted to... join us!"

Naruto and Sasuke looked at said friends the guy had mentioned and they all looked like perverts.

"No thanks we were just leaving." Naruto said.

"What about you then cutie?" the guy asked Sasuke.

Naruto suddenly felt possessive. He stood and took Sasuke by the arm.

"I said we were leaving!"

"She can talk for herself!" the guy said, smiling at Sasuke.

Sasuke stayed silent, but his glare was pretty scary.

"Come on please! Why not?" he pleaded again, apparently turned on by the glare more than anything, and he raised his hand to brush Sasuke's pale cheek.

"Because she's with me!" Naruto said pushing the other's arm away.

"What? Two sexy girls like you, I can't believe it, it would be such a waste!" he protested. When he didn't get an answer he went on, "prove it then!"

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who raised a delicate brow. Naruto took it as a challenge. It was quite a sight for the perverted drunk men looking. Naruto softly brushed the long raven hair of the other behind his shoulder and moved closer. Their lips touched and they kissed softly. Sasuke surprised Naruto by licking his bottom lip, and Naruto put his arm around the other's waist to pull him closer and deepen the kiss. He slid his tongue in Sasuke's mouth, and they battled playfully to dominate the kiss. Naruto pressed their lips together one last time, and then they finally pulled away.

Naruto just looked into beautiful onyx eyes for a moment, and he suddenly remembered where he was. He glanced at the other guys. They all had their mouth wide open and were staring, some of them literally drooling.

Naruto laughed and took Sasuke by the hand. "Come on, Karin!"

Sasuke just nodded and followed him back to their room.

Naruto closed the door and leaned on it, changing back into his normal appearance. "Aww man did you see their faces? It was so hilarious."

Sasuke also changed back. "Such perverts..."

"Yeah I know! But we made them shut up that's for sure!" the blond laughed.

Naruto chose not to talk about how intense the kiss had been for him, but somehow he was certain it had been just as intense for Sasuke.

It was getting really late and - the alcohol probably not helping - they were both really tired. They lied down each in their respective single beds, and fell asleep quickly.

xxx

_Sasuke was eight years old again, training with his brother__ happily. Itachi was teaching him how to throw kunais with more skill and precise aim. After the training, they were both laughing while going back home happily. Mikoto and Fugaku were smiling when they stepped inside, proud of their boys._

_The scene changed again…_

"_No matter what happens, I'll always be your brother, and I'll always protect you..." Itachi was telling him while they were sitting outside on the porch._

_Another change of scenes. Sasuke was walking inside his big and abnormally quiet house. But suddenly__ he gasped and fell on the floor. _

_Not that again, please not again... _

_His parents, their dead bodies lying on the floor. So much blood..._

"_Nii-san?" Sasuke cried out, looking for his older brother._

"_Otouto..." Itachi whispered in a broken voice behind him._

_A now sixteen years old Sasuke turned around and Itachi was standing in front of him. He was bleeding and weakened but his hand was still reaching towards Sasuke._

"_Otouto... I just need... your eyes," Itachi stuttered._

_Sasuke was frozen, he just couldn't move. He felt so much pain as his eyes were ripped off of their sockets. As he was screaming, he tried to cover his injuries with his hands but he couldn't, someone or something was stopping him, was holding his arms back._

"_Sasuke! Sasuke stop!" someone was yelling._

_Was it... Naruto's voice?_

"_Naruto..." he whispered._

His eyes snapped open, panting and still struggling a little.

Naruto was sitting next to him in the bed, holding his arms tightly. "Are you okay? If I let go of your arms are you gonna stop rubbing your eyes like you want to rip them off or something?"

Sasuke was breathing hard. "Yeah..."

Naruto let go of his arms slowly. He lifted his hand towards Sasuke's face, just to wipe away the few tears that were still lingering on the raven's cheeks.

Sasuke looked away; he didn't like to be seen like this. But at the same time, he really felt like crying right now. The memories of Itachi would just never go away, and it was always getting worse. He was probably becoming mad or something...

"Sasuke..." Naruto sighed, sitting beside him in the bed, "It's not your fault."

Sasuke looked up at Naruto's blue eyes. "What?" he whispered.

"It's not your fault, okay? You didn't know."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, trying to stop his voice from trembling.

"Itachi... You talked in your sleep, Sasuke. You blame yourself for so much; you put so much weight on your shoulders. But you were so young, you couldn't have possibly known..."

Sasuke shook his head. "I killed him, Naruto." He whispered. He was really trembling now. He didn't know why, but it needed to come out now. "I killed my brother, and all this time, he was just saving my fucking life." He tried to swallow the tears, but it was just too hard.

He barely noticed Naruto had wrapped his arms around him and was holding him tight. He buried his face in Naruto's chest and cried, his body racked with sobs.

"You didn't know..." Naruto told him again, rubbing circles on his back soothingly.

"I didn't want to know! I was blinded by... revenge and... And now I lost him. He was my only family, and I loved him so much. And now he's gone, and it's my fault. And I... I can't have him back."

"It's not your fault," Naruto protested once again.

The blond was caressing Sasuke's raven locks with one hand and holding him with the other, rubbing his back soothingly to try to ease the trembling a little. He had never seen Sasuke like this before, but somehow he knew this had to happen.

After Sasuke had calmed down, they fell asleep like this, their bodies entangled together. Sasuke clinging to Naruto, just to hold on to something...

In the morning Sasuke woke up with a new determination. Naruto was still sleeping soundly. Good, he thought. He softly moved away from Naruto's arms, and he got up. He fixed his clothes and placed his sword on his back. Before leaving, he wrote a little note for Naruto.

Sasuke didn't even bother changing into a girl's appearance. He just left, and no one noticed him anyway. He took the road, not even bothering to hide. He didn't care anymore, he felt completely alone, and that was okay. Or maybe he was only trying to convince himself. What had happened with Naruto, this closeness, the kiss, these... feelings between them? It couldn't happen again.

As Sasuke had expected, not long after he had taken the road, a group of ninja from the Land of Lightning came across him. They were five and their leader told them to stop when he saw the man that was standing in front of them. He looked carefully then gasped.

"Uchiha Sasuke! I can't believe it! What the hell do you think you're doing, wandering around here?"

"Yeah!" another one exclaimed. "We've been searching you for so long! Raikage will be giving us great rewards if we can bring you to him! Alive or dead, that is!"

Sasuke smirked as they kept rambling on the rewards and stuff like that. He took his katana in his hands. It felt good; maybe he really was going mad. But he just needed to fight, that's what he was good at doing. He wouldn't hurt them. Well, not too much anyway. He didn't want to kill anymore people uselessly. Maybe Naruto was starting to rub off on him...

One of the ninja was sent away to bring reinforcements. So there were four standing in front of the raven.

"So are you gonna shut up and attack me or what?" he smirked.

When Naruto woke up, alone, he was very upset. He put his head in his hands and sighed 'I can't believe he did this to me...again'. He had read Sasuke's note and he didn't know what to think anymore.

_Naruto__,_

_G__o back to Konoha. Tell them I attacked the Sound ninja on my own. You'll be just fine. And you shouldn't give up your dream of becoming the Hokage, you're almost there. As for me, I can't be close to anyone. Don't chase after me anymore. You have your own life to live._

He was really pissed. Sasuke didn't understand anything. After giving Naruto this one chance to get closer to him, he just fucking left like that? His own life to live, he thought bitterly, was this a fucking joke? Sasuke really didn't understand him at all.

He left the place quickly, determined to go, yet again, after the raven and do something, anything that would make him understand. Maybe punch him, or just shake him and yell to stop fucking running away all the time...

Sasuke was actually enjoying himself. His sharingan could see through all the movements and attacks of the opponents; it was like in slow motion. He didn't use any techniques; he just fought back with his katana and tai jutsu. And he didn't really hurt the ninjas, he just knocked them off or hurt them enough that they wouldn't stand up for a little while.

He was getting tired, though, because more and more were coming. It was as if the Land of Lightning was deploying an army to fight him or something. Well, this was probably the Raikage's influence… But the raven didn't care, he just kept fighting; he was in a sort of trance. Fighting made him forget everything, and he felt thrilled. He just wanted to stop thinking. At this point, he didn't really care if he was outnumbered and getting more and more exhausted; he wasn't scared of dying...


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Standing in the middle of the street, Naruto was concentrated, using senin mode to try and feel Sasuke's chakra. But instead he felt three very familiar chakra that were coming near him. He didn't hide, he just waited for them. Soon, Kiba and Akamaru, Hinata and Shino were in front of him.

"Naruto! We finally caught up to you!" Kiba enthusiastically exclaimed.

"He shouldn't be out in the open like this. Maybe this is a trick." Shino said.

The blond shook his head. "This is not a trick guys. But what the hell are you three doing here? Are you on a mission?"

"Yes, we're on a mission to find you and bring you back to Konoha!" Kiba said. "So, you're going to come with me!"

Kiba jumped and caught Naruto in his arms. They both fell on the ground roughly but the blond struggled and managed to push Kiba away.

"Dude! How did you get this strong?" Kiba said as he tried to attack Naruto again.

"Kiba back off okay?" Naruto replied, maintaining a safe distance.

"He's right Kiba," Hinata said in a soft voice. "He's not trying to escape you don't have to attack him."

She came to stand between them, to stop them from fighting.

"Thanks Hinata," Naruto smiled.

She smiled back. "I'm glad you're okay."

"So you guys are on a mission to bring me back to Konoha, huh?" Naruto laughed "Well this is kind of ironic..."

Hinata frowned. "Yeah... but Naruto what happened? Where's Sasuke?"

Kiba seemed to remember something. "Oh yeah! He was supposed to be with you and we were supposed to bring him back too! Where is he?"

Naruto shook his head. "Damn Kiba you can be such an idiot sometimes."

"Do you know where he is?" Shino asked.

"No... I was going to try and find him."

Hinata nodded. "Then we're coming with you."

"Wait! Hinata, who said you were the leader?" Kiba protested.

Naruto ignored him and turned to his friend. "Hinata, if I go back to Konoha now, am I gonna get arrested...?"

Hinata shook her head and smiled. "Of course not Naruto. Shikamaru told us what happened... and he overreacted when he told you that. I talked with Sakura, and she told me Tsunade would probably just yell at you and maybe give you a few missions without paying you or something like that."

Naruto sighed, somewhat relieved. "Thanks... okay we're losing time, let's go!"

"Well, do you have any idea where he went?" Kiba asked.

Naruto looked down. "Actually... not really."

"Oh and I'm supposed to be the idiot here?" Kiba replied and Akamaru barked, as if agreeing.

Annoying dog, Naruto thought. While Kiba and Naruto continued arguing, Hinata activated her Byakugan. She suddenly gasped and brought a hand to her mouth.

"What do you see Hinata?" Shino asked her quietly.

"So many..." she whispered.

Naruto and Kiba stopped arguing and paid attention to her.

"Hinata?" Naruto asked, suddenly anxious.

She frowned, "There are so many people. I don't know who they are, but they're all fighting and a lot of them are down."

"Is Sasuke there?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I can recognize his chakra... and...he's the one they're all fighting."

Naruto nodded. "All right let's go, Hinata I'm following you!"

"Hai!"

The black-haired girl started running, Naruto close behind her. Shino and Kiba followed behind them.

Hinata had kept her byakugan activated to see what was going on and make sure they were going the right way. But suddenly she gasped and almost fell but Naruto caught her.

"What's happening?" he asked, panting.

"Sasuke... he collapsed... and now..." she breathed.

"What? What now?" Naruto urged her.

She narrowed her eyes and concentrated. "They're taking him..."

"Taking him where?" Naruto shouted.

Hinata didn't reply, and tears were forming in her pale eyes.

"Naruto calm the fuck down okay!" Kiba interrupted. "How could she know that? Let's just go and we'll see for ourselves okay? Oh yeah, and no more attacking random people to protect that bastard!"

Naruto glared at Kiba, he felt like punching him, very hard. But he just took in a deep breath and looked back at Hinata.

"I'm sorry Hinata. Let's go!"

He started running again, the others following him. They arrived soon after to a very disturbing scene. There were about fifty Kumogakure ninja lying on the ground in a valley. All were groaning and moaning; some of them even still unconscious.

"What the hell happened here?" Kiba asked.

Hinata was checking them to see if they were all right.

"None of them's really hurt! They just have minor injuries." She stated.

One of them caught Hinata by the arm. "Hey we got him! We finally got him!"

"What?" she asked.

"That fucking Uchiha bastard!"

Naruto kneeled beside the man. "Please tell us what happened."

"Well he was just walking there on the road! And we started attacking him, we also called some reinforcements. And we finally got him!"

Naruto was getting frustrated. "What do you mean got him? Did you... Is he..." Naruto couldn't bring himself to say it.

Kiba didn't care though. "Is he dead?"

The man shook his head. "I don't know... It was all blurry. My head hurts! That bastard hit me!"

"You should just be glad he didn't kill you." Hinata said while healing him.

Naruto stood up and ran shaky hands through his spiky blond hair. "Sasuke obviously didn't fight back properly... He didn't use any jutsu, he didn't try anything... What the fuck was he thinking?" he muttered more to himself.

That stupid bastard had better not be dead, he thought.

Hinata went on healing some more people, and soon after a group of medics from the nearest village arrived. Hinata went to talk to them and explained the situation. While they were doing their job, Hinata walked up to Naruto.

She sighed. "One of them knows what happened. Sasuke's not dead, but he's not in a good condition."

Naruto tried not to snap at her. "What do you mean?"

"He was unconscious. They brought him to the Raikage. The medic told me the Raikage would probably torture him... or worst."

Naruto let out a cry of despair and Hinata bit her lip, she hated seeing him suffer like that.

"Look man..." Kiba put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Let's just go back to our village for now okay? Let the Hokage deal with this..."

Naruto pushed Kiba's arm angrily. "I'm going to the Raikage..."

"Dude, I'm just trying to help you!" Kiba sighed. "Honestly, I think you should just let it go."

"I don't care what you think." Naruto whispered.

"Fine, whatever..." Kiba lifted his arms meaning he didn't want to argue anymore.

"I'm gonna go with you." Hinata said.

"Thanks, but you don't have to..." the blond protested weakly.

She smiled, "It's our mission to bring you, and Sasuke, back to Konoha and the Hokage." She glared at her two other teammates as if to remind them. She looked back at Naruto. "And I want to help you." She added softly with a blush on her cheeks.

The blond nodded and smiled weakly. "All right...thanks."

"I'm going to, then." Shino said.

Kiba sighed and looked at Naruto. "Fine let's go. But I'm doing it for her, not for you."

Naruto nodded, he knew all too well that Kiba was doing this because of Hinata, and he was all the more thankful to her.

The medics indicated the fastest way to the building where the Raikage's office was, and they immediately started running. Naruto kept thinking about Sasuke, about his stupid note, about how much of a stupid suicidal bastard he was… And his heart squeezed in his chest at the thought that he might be badly hurt, or even worst…

xxx

When Sasuke woke up, his whole body felt freezing cold and extremely painful. He would rather stay unconscious... He was locked up in a small prison cell, with absolutely nothing in it. It was empty, cold and wet; probably in a basement of an old decrepit building. He was lying on the floor, his wrists attached to heavy metal chains on the wall. His injuries hadn't been treated and they hurt like hell. His vital organs weren't hurt, but he still had a lot of wounds from the fight. His clothes were all ripped off and bloodstained. He sighed; he suddenly wished he had died during the fight instead of being brought in jail.

He scanned his surroundings, well, as much as he could see. He could have escaped easily using one of his jutsu; there weren't that many guards anyway and this place didn't seem that solid. But he didn't want to; he didn't know where to escape anymore. He just didn't care...

One of the guards noticed that he was awake.

"Hey, Uchiha's awake!" he told another guard.

The other nodded, "Okay, well time to have some fun then!"

Sasuke heard them and he raised a brow. Have some fun? Did they seriously think they could "have some fun" with him, whatever the hell that meant?

They opened his cell and laughed. "Look what we got here! Even with all this blood, you're still pretty cute!"

"Yeah," the other said. "It's not often that we have new prisoners here. Especially pretty ones like you."

Sasuke's face was as bored and expressionless as ever.

The guard laughed even more. "Look at that! He's not even scared!"

"Oh I bet he'll be scared soon enough!"

One of the guards approached him but Sasuke's reflexes were really sharp; even in his injured state. In a split second, he stood up and kicked the man's face.

"Ahhh!" the man screamed, bringing his hands to his face. His nose was broken and he was bleeding profusely.

The other looked hesitant.

Sasuke smirked, "So, who's scared now?" he teased. "You two are a pathetic excuse for a prison guard."

"You'll regret this you son of a bitch!" the guard with the broken nose screamed.

Sasuke frowned slightly; he was getting sick of these two. His eyes turned red and he used a genjutsu on them. They were too weak to notice what was happening to them.

Because of Sasuke's illusion, all they were seeing now was a world in black and red shades, with raven birds attacking them and it felt as if they were being stabbed every time. Soon they were both lying on the ground, screaming and struggling against an invisible force.

After just a few seconds, although it had seemed an eternity for the two men caught in the genjutsu, Sasuke dropped it and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were their normal black. The two men got back on their feet hesitantly. They turned to look at the prisoner, real fear in their eyes now.

"What... what the hell was that?"

"I don't know but I don't want to stay near him anymore! Let's go report this..."

"Yeah, you'll pay for this Uchiha!"

They closed his cell and walked away quickly.

Sasuke sighed and let himself slide down to sit on the floor, his back against the cold wall. At least he was rid of these two...

It wasn't long before some more people arrived in front of his cell though. These ones were not just guards. They were trained shinobi and pretty strong ones too, Sasuke could tell. There were six of them.

The first one had the key to the cell in his hands. "We're here by the order of the Raikage, to retrieve information." He said unlocking his cell.

Sasuke smirked. "Hn... is the Raikage scared or something? Why does he need to send people to do his dirty work?"

"Don't you dare insult Raikage-sama!" one of them yelled.

These people were so god damn annoying…

The one with the key proceeded to unlock the door, and he smirked as he approached Sasuke, a kunai in his hand. Sasuke wondered just how idiotic these people were… A kunai, seriously?

He gathered lightning energy into his hands, and with a scream he broke free from the chains. He kicked the man's wrist, and caught the kunai as it was flying in the air.

"Thanks," he said mockingly, then storming out of the cell he transformed into one of the guards.

"H-hey! Catch him! Hurry up!"

But Sasuke was running much faster than any of them. Problem was, the place was a god damn labyrinth. He was running through the old building, passing corridors and corridors of prison cells. He eventually found stairs, and climbed them up as fast as he could. Some people looked at him funny, but he ignored them. And, since he was disguised as one of the guards, they didn't go after him.

Sasuke wondered what kind of lame, pathetic prisoners they were used to have but damn, he'd never thought escaping from jail would be that easy. He found an exit door in no time, and he arrived in a little dark alley. It was evening already. He wondered how much time he'd been unconscious…

As he quickly hid behind a closed store, he saw several prison guards suddenly come out of the building, running around in every direction. It appeared they didn't even have a chakra sensor amongst them.

Sasuke transformed back to his real body. He was exhausted, hurt, and drained of energy, but still he started walking, and searching for a hiding place. Sure he'd pretty much lost his will to live, but he sure as hell didn't want to be stuck in a prison cell…


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Naruto couldn't bring himself to feel bad for Shino, Hinata and Kiba who were all exhausted. He just couldn't stop until they reached the Raikage. But soon he realized they just couldn't keep up anymore, so he stopped and they did the same. Some people were staring at them curiously in the street; probably wondering what these strangers were doing here, running like crazy people in the middle of the afternoon, but Naruto paid them no mind.

"Okay," he said, panting. "You guys can stay behind; go rest and spend the night at an inn or something. I'll keep going."

Kiba frowned. "I can't trust you. What if you take that opportunity to escape again?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why would I do that? I just want to talk to the Raikage."

"And save Sasuke, right?" Kiba added.

Naruto sighed and glanced away. "Yeah…"

Kiba's voice softened. "I'm sure he's fine."

Naruto looked back at him. "Thanks," he said sincerely, appreciating Kiba's efforts.

"No problem. Hey, I know, take Akamaru with you!" Then, turning to his dog, "You're not tired, are you, little guy?"

Akamaru barked excitedly and shook his tail.

Hinata laughed softly. "I think that means no! That's a good idea actually. I don't want you to go alone, Naruto. Akamaru can help you, and also, he can find us wherever we are if you're in danger and you need us."

Naruto smiled. "Thank you guys. Let's go Akamaru!"

"Good luck," Shino said.

With that, Naruto and Akamaru started running again.

xxx

"Raikage-sama," the assistant bowed, "there's this kid who demands an immediate audience with you."

The Raikage growled threateningly and the assistant hurried in his explanations.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I know you don't like to be disturbed when you're busy. His name is Uzumaki Naruto; he said you'd recognize it."

The Raikage's expression changed completely. "Yeah of course, he's a good friend of my brother! Let him in!" he smiled.

As soon as the door opened, Naruto burst in the room, Akamaru right behind him.

He bowed politely, but quickly, "Hi Raikage-sama, I wish to visit a prisoner, please."

The Raikage frowned. "A prisoner?"

Naruto had to repress the urge to roll his eyes. Now the Raikage was just playing dumb.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto answered while trying to control the trembling in his voice.

"To tell you the truth, I was expecting this, but not so soon!"

"Can I see him please?"

The Raikage sighed, "Unfortunately, he escaped a few hours ago. My men are searching for him as we speak."

Naruto's eyes widened. He was secretly happy, but he hid it to the Raikage of course. If Sasuke had escaped, it meant he was okay… He had to be okay.

"I'm gonna look for him as well. It is my mission, as a Konoha ninja, to retrieve Sasuke. If I find him, I'll bring him back to my own village, and he will be judged there."

"I understand. But if my men find him, they'll bring him back here," the raikage replied.

"I can live with that," Naruto said.

Sasuke would just escape again anyway, he thought, slightly amused. He thanked the Raikage for the information and left again, Akamaru following him.

"We need to find Sasuke. Can you do that for me?"

Naruto felt silly for talking to a dog. But hey, it was worth a try. To his surprise, Akamaru barked excitedly and started running down the street.

Well, it was true that Akamaru had often been asked to track down the rebellious Uchiha…

Naruto felt hopeful as he ran after the big white dog. They passed a large building with a sigh saying Kumogakure prison. Using his amazing deduction skills Naruto figured this was probably where they had brought Sasuke earlier.

Akamaru turned after that building, and they continued to some smaller streets, and all the way to the more residential area. At some point Akamaru slowed his pace, and started sniffing the ground almost fervently. Naruto was starting to understand why Kiba loved that dog so much. Damn, he could be useful!

Akamaru brought him to an isolated house that seemed abandoned. The plants in the yard were all dead, and the roof was half destroyed.

"Sasuke took shelter here?" Naruto asked Akamaru.

It was starting to feel normal to talk to the dog now.

The latter barked, but didn't bring him inside. Instead he walked around it, still sniffing the ground, until they got to the backyard. Akamaru stopped near a large tree, and looked confused – as much as a dog can look confused.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

But then the cold night air shifted around him. It was a genjutsu. For a moment the tree and ground around it got all blurry. When it cleared away Sasuke was sitting there, leaning on the tree, and looking at Naruto with tired black eyes.

"You bastard!" Naruto shouted angrily.

But then he realized Sasuke was pretty badly injured. There were some deep flesh wounds on his arms and chest that looked pretty nasty since they evidently hadn't been treated. His face and neck only had a few bruises and cuts, but he was extremely pale. As for his legs Naruto couldn't see properly because of his pants, but there were a lot of bloodstains.

He quickly sat beside the raven. "Are you okay?"

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" he whispered.

Naruto bit his lip; this wasn't the time for a heart wrenching conversation. Sasuke had obviously lost a lot of blood, and had used his remaining energy and chakra to escape and maintain this genjutsu. He needed a medical ninja to treat his wounds, otherwise they'd get infected and his state would be even worse.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

Sasuke nodded slightly and got up, but he was still leaning on the tree.

"Put your arm around me. I'll help you," Naruto said.

Again, Sasuke made a slight nod and then he did as he was told, leaning on Naruto for support. Naruto walked slowly and carefully at first, but increased his pace as he saw that Sasuke was okay. He was still leaning on him, but at least he was able to walk. Akamaru followed them obediently.

"Let's go find Kiba and the others now, Akamaru," Naruto told him.

The dog barked excitedly, and led the way.

"Kiba and the others?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Hinata and Shino are also there. Their mission is to bring us back to Konoha…"

Sasuke frowned, but didn't reply. Naruto could see that he wasn't feeling very good. Actually he looked like he was about to pass out. But he held on.

When they got back in the main street, near the prison building, a group of ninja stop them.

"Hey, it's Uchiha! Let's put him under arrest…"

"Let's kill him this time…"

"Stay back!" Naruto shouted, interrupting them.

They stopped their movements and their attention turned to him, suddenly uneasy.

Naruto, using his perfected control of the element, created a wind barrier around them.

"I spoke with the Raikage. And if I were to find Sasuke first, he agreed that I bring him back to my own village. So I recommend you let us pass now."

"I know that guy," one of the men said, looking scared, "he's the Kyubi jinchuriki, he's pretty strong…"

Beside Naruto, Sasuke chuckled. "Quite the reputation, huh?"

"Whatever, let's go," Naruto said, repressing a little smile.

Akamaru growled at them, adding some more to Naruto's intimidation, and they let them through without a word.

After some more minutes of walking though, Sasuke was starting to trip quite often. Naruto was being careful and helping him, but he could only do so much… Sasuke's breathing was laboured, and his eyes half-closed and feverish.

"Let's just sit for a minute," Naruto said, helping him to sit on the sidewalk.

Sasuke didn't protest, and leaned on him for support again. He was trembling. Naruto put an arm around him, worried.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

"I think there's something wrong with my leg…"

He brought his hand to his left thigh, and pulled some of the ripped black tissue of his pants. Sure enough, there was a pretty nasty wound there, in the inside of his thigh, and as Naruto turned to look behind them, he saw that there were some marks of blood on the ground, where Sasuke had walked.

"You idiot why didn't you tell me!" Naruto shouted.

But Sasuke's head rolled down on his shoulder, he was unconscious.

"Damn stupid bastard," he sighed in despair.

He picked him up bridal style, holding him close, and continued following Akamaru. Thankfully, the white dog stopped after only ten more minutes – but Naruto had walked a lot faster, and had cursed himself for not carrying him like this from the start.

They walked inside a small inn, and since it was getting really late there weren't anyone in the hall at that moment. And the people in the restaurant were too busy drinking and enjoying their night to bother with the new comers.

Naruto hurried up and followed Akamaru to the end of a long hallway. That dog really was useful. He made a note to self never to make fun of Kiba for being so obsessed with Akamaru again.

Akamaru stopped in between two doors.

"Uh… which one is Hinata's?" Naruto asked.

Again, the dog impressed him. He went to sit in front of the door at Naruto's right, and barked.

"Thank you, Akamaru," he said.

He didn't need to knock; Hinata had heard Akamaru. She opened the door and gasped when she saw Sasuke.

"I need you to heal him," Naruto told her.

She snapped out of it, and looked up at him. "I'll do my best," she said.

xxx

When Sasuke woke up he felt dizzy. He didn't know where he was and didn't remember how he got there. But he felt somewhat better; some of his strength had come back although he still felt very tired. He felt cleaner too; all the blood and ripped clothing were gone. Instead he was wearing clean pants and there were bandages all around his stomach and chest.

When he looked around him, the first thing he noticed was that Naruto was asleep in a chair next to the bed, and he was holding his hand. There was also another bed in the room and he noticed that someone was sleeping in it, he recognized Hinata.

He tried to sit and a grunt escaped his lips when he felt the sharp pain in his body. It made Naruto wake up.

"You're awake! How are you feeling?" the blond asked.

Sasuke didn't answer. He was still trying to sit but it was hard with those tight bandages and all of his body feeling sore and painful, especially his left leg – which he realized was also bandaged under the pants.

Naruto helped him to sit up. "Here, is it okay like that?"

Sasuke nodded and looked away. "Didn't you read my note?" he whispered.

He coughed; his throat felt so dry and his lips were chapped.

Naruto frowned and didn't answer; instead he brought him a glass of water. Sasuke drank it in silence. When he was done the blond took out a little paper from his pocket.

"You mean this? This stupid little note you wrote before running away _again_?"

Sasuke realized how upset Naruto was, and he felt a twinge of guilt. The blond ripped the paper with his hands and threw it away, then glared at the raven.

"You keep fucking running away from me! I mean you asked me to come with you! And I said yes, I was willing to throw everything away just to make sure you were okay!" tears were falling from his eyes but he kept talking. "And then you fucking ran away again! And you... you fought those people just for fun it seems, just what the hell were you thinking? Were you trying to kill yourself? I know all too well that you could have killed them all if you wanted to, but you didn't. Instead you let them beat you up…"

"Why do you care...?" Sasuke whispered.

Naruto's blue eyes widened and he seemed desperate, he wiped off his tears and ran his hands through his blond hair, leaning closer to the bed.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" his voice softened. "You really don't understand anything." Naruto shook his head sadly. He took Sasuke's hand and held it tightly. "You told me to stop chasing after you. I can't do that, Sasuke. I'll never stop, and I don't want any stupid note saying that I have my own life to live. I don't want... I don't want to live my life if you're not in it! Damn is that so hard to understand?"

While Naruto talked Sasuke never lowered his gaze. He felt even more guilt within him, and unknown feelings too. He suddenly wanted to just pull Naruto into a really tight embrace and never let go. But instead he just glanced away.

The blond sighed, and then he stood up and walked away angrily, slapping the door behind him.

Hinata woke up with a start. She seemed tired and worried as she glanced at the closed door. Then her eyes met Sasuke's.

She walked up to him and started checking his injuries.

"So you're the one who healed me." He said.

She nodded. "I learned thanks to Ino, who agreed to give me lessons. She herself learned from Sakura, I think. So I'm far from being as good as Sakura or Shizune. If we get to the Leaf fast enough, maybe they can check up on you and..."

He shook his head. "You're doing it perfectly well. Thank you..."

She smiled. "You should thank Naruto. If he hadn't saved you, you'd probably be dead by now..."

He nodded; she was right. But he had wanted to die, or at least he didn't care. But now, after hearing Naruto, he felt like that had been so wrong. And he hadn't even thanked him...

He frowned. "Hinata, why are you doing this? You shouldn't be helping me."

"I'm doing it for Naruto." She said simply.

He sighed; he was causing them so much trouble. He could never belong with them at Konoha anymore, this time was over. Why couldn't Naruto understand that?

"You should've let me die… He would've forgiven you," he said.

Hinata shook her head, a little sad smile on her lips. "No, you're wrong. You don't understand him at all if that's what you think. Sasuke, if I had let you die on purpose, he wouldn't have forgiven me."

Sasuke didn't reply. He glanced away and sighed shakily. He didn't know what to think of all this anymore. Except that he wanted to talk to Naruto, more than ever now, but he just didn't know how to...


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

After his frustrating talk with Sasuke, Naruto was very upset and pissed. Damn, Sasuke really didn't understand a thing…

He burst into Shino and Kiba's room, slapping the door behind him. They were eating breakfast.

"Hey Naruto, what's up?" Kiba said casually even though he'd just slapped the freaking door angrily.

"I hate Sasuke..." he muttered.

Kiba laughed. "Okay you and I both know that's a lie."

The blond sat on the nearest bed. "Whatever..." he sighed, and put his head in his hands.

"Akamaru pretty much told me what happened. Being reckless and unpredictable again, huh?"

Naruto sighed again. "Yeah… but we shouldn't get any trouble I mean the Raikage agreed to it and all… Oh and I should thank you for letting me bring Akamaru. He was amazing!"

Kiba smirked. "Told ya!"

Naruto smiled and petted the sleeping dog on the head.

"So what do we do now?" Shino asked seriously.

"Well we go back to Konoha." Kiba answered simply.

There was a knock on the door and Naruto stood and went to open it. It was Hinata and Sasuke. He let them in and closed the door. Kiba and Shino tensed, clearly uncomfortable because of Sasuke's presence. The raven just stayed in the corner of the room, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. Naruto risked a glance at him, but Sasuke didn't look back.

Hinata had heard the last part of their conversation. "It won't be that easy, Kiba. I'm sure some people are still looking for…" she threw a hesitant glance at Sasuke. "We'll have to be very careful, maybe find a secret way or hide..."

"I know a secret way..." Sasuke interrupted in a low voice.

"Where?" Naruto asked without looking at him.

"One of Orochimaru's old hideouts is a pretty complex underground passage that leads to the Fire Country. I don't think anyone knows it except me..."

"Wait, wait, wait! We can't trust him!" Kiba protested. "It must be another twisted plan of his, it's too dangerous!"

Sasuke raised a brow. "Do I seem in any position of making 'twisted plans'? What are you scared of? That Orochimaru is going to burst out of nowhere and attack you? That won't happen, cause I killed him."

Kiba glared. "What tells me you won't try to kill us, too?"

Sasuke smirked. "Don't worry, if I wanted to kill you, you'd be long dead by now."

"You better shut up you fucking prick!" Kiba shouted and in a split second he was in front of Sasuke, ready to punch him. He threw his fist but Naruto caught it in one impressive movement, just before it hit Sasuke's face. Both guys just stared at the blond, impressed.

"Kiba's right. Sasuke, we can't really trust you."

Naruto let go of Kiba's fist and the brunet smirked, his expression clearly telling Sasuke, in your face, he's on my side. The raven's face was blank but, even though Naruto couldn't be sure, he thought his eyes looked hurt.

"But we don't have a choice," Naruto finally added.

"What?" Kiba yelled.

It was Sasuke's turn to smirk now. "I don't think we're too far from it. You'll just have to follow me."

Naruto nodded and gave the others an apologetic look. They really didn't have a choice. Kiba and Shino had already paid, so they left the inn by the back door without anyone noticing. In the little streets, they walked really fast, keeping their guard up. Hinata kept using her byakugan to make sure no one was following them. Naruto did the same with senin chakra.

Sasuke soon recognized his surroundings and he led them to the secret hideout. After a quiet and fast walk, they were out of the village and made it to a clearing. Luckily no one had found them yet. But they were eager to reach the forest where they would be safer. So when Sasuke stopped right in the middle of the open clearing, they were confused.

"What? Don't tell me it's here, where anyone could see it." Kiba exclaimed.

Sasuke ignored his comment and took a few careful steps, looking at the ground. He spotted a pile of dirt and rocks and asked Naruto for an explosive.

"You don't know how to open it?" Naruto asked.

The raven just shrugged. "Orochimaru never told me. There's a secret trick with his chakra that he did... or something like that. But I think if we make an explosion right here, we'll have a good way in."

Naruto smirked. "I guess he didn't trust you after all."

"And he was right!" Kiba added.

"He still got killed." Sasuke replied.

"Good point." Shino nodded.

Kiba glared at his teammate. "Whose side are you on Shino?"

Shino didn't reply.

"Guys hurry up! Someone's coming!" Hinata urged them on.

Naruto gasped. "You're right, I can feel it too. There you go Sasuke." He handed him the explosive.

The raven put it at the exact place he thought would make an entrance for them. And he was right; when it exploded a large hole could be seen that led to a dark cave.

"I'll go last; I have to close it behind us." Sasuke explained.

"I'm so not going in there first! It's creepy!" Kiba shouted.

"Damn Kiba! Could you please stop yelling?" Naruto said.

"Hey you can't deny it, it's creepy." Kiba repeated.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It was one of Orochimaru's hideouts. What did you expect? A lovely little passage with pink walls, fountains and flowers maybe?"

"Shut up Uchiha!" Kiba snarled.

Hinata looked worried. "Guys we don't have much time!"

Naruto took Sasuke by the arm and brought him a little apart from the others.

"I'll go first. Can I trust you?"

"Yeah."

"This isn't another trick for you to run away from me?"

Sasuke's onyx eyes looked sincere when he spoke, "Where the hell would I run away? I'm staying with you this time."

Naruto's blue eyes widened, he was so surprised to hear Sasuke talk like this that he didn't know what to say. So he just nodded and he made his way through the hole in the ground. Hinata was right behind him, then Shino, Kiba and Akamaru followed. Sasuke entered last, bringing some rocks so that the hole couldn't be seen. It wasn't perfect but it would have to do for now.

After a little while the hideout became more comfortable for them to walk in. It was still creepy and dark, but at least there was more space so they didn't have to bend down anymore.

"Orochimaru really had nothing to do to build such elaborate underground hideouts!" Kiba said.

"No, he probably had some people do it for him, and then killed them. Or he made experiments on them before killing them." Sasuke said.

"That would not surprise me," Naruto said with a disgusted voice.

They walked in silence for a while. They were keeping a fast pace, eager to get out of there. Sasuke was leading them because he knew the place; they were just all hoping that he wasn't going to trick them. Naruto was the only one who trusted him; what the raven had told him earlier was still lingering in his thoughts. He actually felt like Sasuke had really meant it. And he had actually said he wanted to stay with him. It warmed Naruto's heart and made him happy, even though he knew he was probably just being silly, but he couldn't help his feelings.

He went to walk beside Sasuke at the front. It was starting to get really cold. Naruto heard Kiba ask Hinata if she was cold. He glanced behind his shoulder and saw that Kiba had his arm around her and was trying to warm her. He noticed Sasuke was shivering too. He was trying to hide it, but it was easy to see that he was cold; after all he only had bandages around his chest to cover him.

Luckily Hinata had brought an extra pair of black pants in her bag. That was what Sasuke was wearing now; his other pants were almost completely destroyed. They were a little too short, but otherwise it fit him because he was so skinny; but they hadn't found anything for him to wear as a shirt.

At that moment Naruto wished he still had his sweater, but he only had his black t-shirt. Without a word, he removed it and handed it to Sasuke.

Sasuke stared. "What are you doing?"

"You're cold." Naruto said simply. "Take it."

"Aren't you cold?" Sasuke asked, looking at Naruto's bare chest.

Naruto shrugged. "I'm never really cold. I guess that's thanks to the Kyubi, maybe, I don't really know."

Sasuke raised a brow, clearly not convinced. Naruto rolled his eyes and touched the raven's arm to prove his point. Indeed, Naruto's hand was really warm compared to Sasuke's ice cold skin.

"See? I told you." Naruto smirked.

Sasuke just took the black shirt and put it on. He winced when his injuries still caused him some pain.

Naruto frowned. "It still hurts?"

"No."

"Liar."

Sasuke's lips twitched into an almost smile, but he didn't reply. He suddenly remembered something, and it made him feel uneasy. They kept walking quietly for a few minutes, but he just couldn't get it out of his head, he had to say it.

"Dobe."

"Don't call me that! What?"

"...Thank you."

"What?" Naruto's eyes widened, Sasuke rarely, if not never, apologized.

"I'm not gonna repeat it."

Naruto chuckled, "You, actually being nice and thanking someone. Is this a genjutsu? It can't be real."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever..."

Naruto was silent for a few moments, and then he said, "You would have done the same."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, shocked and confused, and then he glanced away. "How can you say that, you don't know..."

"You saved my life so many times when we were in the same team Sasuke. You're still the same guy. I know things changed, I'm not that naive. But people can only change so much…"

Sasuke glanced at him again, and he saw that Naruto was smiling. He liked that smile; he liked that much better than the upset expression Naruto had before. He shook his head and looked away, trying to think about something else.

"Did you have, like, a room for yourself in here?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah."

"Really? Can I see it?"

Sasuke raised a brow. "There's nothing to see... decorating my room wasn't in my priorities."

"I don't care! I want to see it."

Sasuke repressed a laugh. "Okay, it's right there actually."

The raven pointed at a door a few meters ahead of them. He stopped to open it, Naruto right behind him.

The others stopped too and Kiba frowned. "What are you doing?"

"This was Sasuke's room." Naruto simply said.

"So what?" Kiba replied.

Naruto ignored him and entered the room. It was small and pretty much empty, except for a small bed and desk, and the walls were dark and plain. Curious, the blond opened all the drawers in the desk. Sasuke just leaned on the wall and crossed his arms.

"I told you there was nothing..." he started.

"Hey those can be useful!" Naruto exclaimed.

In one of the drawers there were a few weapons, mostly some kunai. Naruto put a few ones in his bag.

"You don't want any?" he asked Sasuke.

"No... I just wish I had my sword. Those assholes back there probably stole it by now..."

"Oh, yeah... that sucks."

The blond was about to close the drawers and leave but something caught his attention. At the bottom of the drawer, underneath the weapons, there was a picture. It was all crippled but Naruto took it out carefully and looked at it.

He gasped. "Sasuke, you kept this?"

It was the picture of team seven when they were twelve, with Kakashi sensei and Sakura in the middle, smiling. On both sides Naruto and Sasuke were making funny faces.

Sasuke went to look over the blond's shoulder.

"Hn... I guess I did."

"All right guys this is really touching and all, but can we just go?" Kiba said, annoyed, Akamaru barking in approval.

Naruto nodded while putting the picture in his bag with the rest of his things. They started walking again, at a really fast pace because they were all sick of this place. They decided to get out at the next exit instead of making it all the way to the Fire land inside. This time there was no need for any explosive. Sasuke knew how to get out from this entrance.

They had made a good distance and they were safe, but they still kept their guard on, watching their surroundings carefully. They were all tired, but they were glad to be outside again. They started running in the forest to progress faster. Kiba and Akamaru were leading the way, Shino and Hinata right behind, and then Sasuke and Naruto at the back.

A few hours later, they really needed to stop. Especially Sasuke, who seemed exhausted and on the verge of passing out. He had been pushing himself a little too hard for someone who had been badly injured just the day before. He hadn't said anything, but Naruto had noticed so he was glad when Kiba decided to stop.

They set up a camp, and shared the few provisions that Hinata and Shino still had left. (Kiba and Akamaru had already eaten everything Kiba had brought.) Then they all lied down to sleep, except Shino who was taking the first turn. But Naruto couldn't sleep; he was scared that Sasuke would try to run away again.

The blond was lying down next to Sasuke, his eyes staring at his back. He was really tired though, and it was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He closed them for what seemed like just a few seconds, but when he opened them again he was lying on his other side, and it was Hinata's turn to stay awake. He panicked and turned around, but then he sighed, relieved; Sasuke was still there. The raven also turned and now he was facing Naruto. His dark eyes were wide open.

"You can sleep usuratonkachi. I told you I wouldn't escape."

"And I'm supposed to believe you?" the blond said in a sleepy, but amused, voice.

"Have I ever lied to you?" Sasuke asked in a low voice.

Naruto opened his mouth but nothing came out. The blond actually thought about it and, when Sasuke said something, it was always true. When he didn't want to say something, rather than lie he would just stay quiet.

"No," Naruto breathed.

They were really close to each other, and Naruto felt like moving even closer, just to touch him, to put his arm around him.

"What about you?" Naruto asked.

"What?"

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Oh..." the raven hesitated. "I'm not really tired I guess."

"Bullshit! See, you just lied to me right now!"

Sasuke sighed. "It doesn't count, because it was a stupid question. You already know why."

"The dreams...?"

"Yeah..."

Naruto nodded and made a sad smile. "I thought so. You should still try to sleep, though."

"..."

"All right, I guess I don't have a choice, I'll trust you. But if you run away again, I swear I'll find you, wherever you are, and then I'll tie you up somewhere for the rest of you life!" Naruto said threateningly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned on his other side. Naruto couldn't see it, but he was sure he was smiling.

"Good night Sasuke teme."

No answer.

"Thank you Naruto! Good night to you too!" the blond said, to demonstrate a polite answer to the rude bastard. "Teme," he muttered.

Naruto couldn't be sure, but he thought he heard a light chuckle coming from the other. He smiled and closed his eyes, drifting into sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Sasuke was waking up slowly, but he felt so warm and comfortable that he just didn't want to move or open his eyes yet. Besides, it felt so good to be warm; he had been so cold all the time for the past days. His arms and hands were clutching on something so soft; he had never touched anything softer in his entire life. But then that something suddenly moved like it had been kicked. Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he realized he was holding Naruto in his arms, and what had felt so soft was none other than the blond's skin; and said blond had indeed just been kicked.

"Oww Kiba what the hell? That hurts..."

Kiba kicked Naruto's side again and laughed. "Come on get up, time to stop cuddling your boyfriend."

Sasuke quickly pulled away. Naruto got on his feet and kicked Kiba's stomach quite hard, making the brunette fall on the ground.

While Kiba was growling in pain, Naruto smirked. "That's what you get for messing with Uzumaki Naruto..."

But Naruto was interrupted by Akamaru who ran straight into him, making him fall. The dog just wanted to play, but he was so heavy and strong that Naruto was having a hard time to get up.

"Good job Akamaru!" Kiba laughed.

"Hey no fair! Two against one!" Naruto complained.

All that noise had woken up Hinata and Shino. The black-haired girl decided to join in the fight. She helped Naruto get out from under Akamaru, but then the white dog made her fall instead. While Kiba was laughing even more, Naruto attacked him. Sasuke just watched, amused, the four of them fighting and having fun. He noticed Shino was standing beside him.

"Are they always like this?" Sasuke asked.

"Actually, no. It's usually worst." Shino answered.

"I guess Naruto and Kiba are not a good team if you're on a serious mission."

"Don't worry, I'm here to balance it out."

Sasuke raised a brow but didn't comment. He didn't know if Shino was kidding, but he looked dead serious. That guy was so weird sometimes...

They eventually stopped fighting; they were just laughing and lying down on the grass. Well, Akamaru still wanted to play, but they just ignored him.

They got back on their feet and soon everyone was ready to go. They were pretty much running in silence, trying to go as fast as possible. Everyone was excited to go back home, to Konoha. Well except for Sasuke, of course. The raven glanced at Naruto, who was running beside him. The blond was quiet and looked really serious, and even anxious, which was rare for him.

He hadn't noticed Sasuke was staring; he was lost in his thoughts. His blond hair was messy, he had some dirt and scratches on his tan skin and toned chest at some places; but that was normal since he had slept on the ground without a shirt. His blue eyes were stunning as usual. Sasuke was taking this opportunity to look at him, because he thought it might be the last time. If he ended up in jail, or maybe killed - which was probably what would happen since he was a runaway ninja… Or maybe he would run away from Konoha again... In either case, he would miss Naruto, a lot. He was realizing this now, but it was too late...

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked him.

Sasuke realized he was the one who was lost in his thoughts now. He looked in front of him and didn't answer. He liked to keep to himself in moments like this. But no such luck, Naruto felt like talking.

"Ne, Sasuke?"

"..."

"You didn't make any nightmares last night, right?"

It was true, Sasuke realized. Every time he had slept in Naruto's arms, he hadn't made any nightmares. He realized how sappy and girly that thought was, but it was actually true. It was as if the blond made him feel... safe, and like everything was okay. Like it wasn't only darkness and emptiness filling his soul anymore; Naruto's presence was really something unique and heart warming.

"You know, it's hard to have a conversation when you're not even answering me!" Naruto pouted.

Sasuke's lips twitched into a little smile.

"At least I make you laugh." Naruto grinned.

"I'm not laughing."

"Oh believe me, in your Uchiha language, that smile was the same as a laugh!" Naruto explained.

"Hn..."

But Sasuke wasn't smiling anymore; even Naruto couldn't stop the dark thoughts from haunting him.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look... I don't know, sad, in your expressionless kind of way."

Sasuke shook his head. "What happens next, Naruto?" he whispered.

Naruto's blue eyes darkened. "I don't know, but don't be scared. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm not scared."

Naruto looked at him intensely. "I am."

Sasuke locked eyes with him, confused. "Why?"

"I don't want to lose you again."

Sasuke glanced away. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't promise anything; he didn't know if he would be able to stay in another prison cell. And he definitely didn't fancy dying executed in Konoha...

"You know what the punishment for being a rogue ninja is." Sasuke said in a low voice. "That added to everything I've done..."

Naruto shook his head. "It won't happen. I won't let them. I promise."

"Maybe you can't save me forever, Naruto..."

His blue eyes lit up and he smirked. "Watch me!"

Sasuke looked at Naruto with wide dark eyes, confusion mixed with amusement. That guy really was something; so unpredictable and stubborn but so funny. Somehow he made him feel more... alive.

As they got near Konoha, Naruto was more and more anxious. He didn't want to let it show, because he wanted to reassure Sasuke. But he knew it wouldn't be easy. Most of the villagers wouldn't recognize Sasuke, but the shinobi and the anbu would definitely go on the offensive as soon as they saw him. It would be hard just to get to Tsunade...

When they finally arrived at the village's entrance, Kiba made them stop. He looked at Sasuke and sighed.

"All right, sorry but those are the orders. It's still our mission." He said taking out a rope of chakra and a blindfold from his bag.

Kiba walked up to Sasuke, but the latter took a step back.

"Don't touch me." He said threateningly. "Look... I won't try anything. Don't worry; your stupid village is safe."

Kiba frowned. "You'd better shut up..."

"Kiba!" Naruto interrupted. "I'll do it."

"Fine! No messing around, huh, Naruto? You've caused enough trouble already!" Kiba said angrily.

Naruto nodded and took the items from Kiba's hands. He grabbed Sasuke's arm to talk to him apart from the others.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered.

Sasuke's expression was blank. "Let's just get this over with..."

"Look, I really don't want to do this..." the blond started.

"I know." Sasuke said in a softer voice.

He closed his eyes, and Naruto put the blindfold on, tying it behind Sasuke's head, but careful not to hurt him. Then, the raven wasn't moving his arms, so Naruto took the pale wrists and tied them together softly. His fingers lingered on Sasuke's soft skin a little longer than necessary.

When it was done, Naruto sighed and started walking. "All right, let's go."

"Huh... dobe?"

"What?"

"You kind of... just blindfolded me."

Naruto let out a little laugh and took Sasuke's arm to help him walk. "Sorry, I guess I'm nervous."

Sasuke resisted the urge to smile. It wouldn't be very appropriate. He let himself be led by Naruto. Would it have been anyone else, he wouldn't have accepted it. But it was Naruto, and somehow he didn't really mind.

"Let's go already! This is taking forever!" Kiba complained.

"Just shut up Kiba..." Hinata said in her soft voice, contrasting with the rough words she used.

Kiba stayed quiet for the rest of the way. Naruto was getting really nervous. He held Sasuke by the arm, holding him tight whenever he lost balance a little. As they made their way through the village, Naruto was relieved that none of them tried to attack. He hated that Sasuke was blindfolded and all, but at least it made Konoha shinobi feel safer. Though it couldn't be helped, there were, of course, a lot of comments. But none of them got a reaction from the raven.

"Hey Naruto! You finally got him!"

"I hope you know what's waiting for you Uchiha!"

"I can't wait for him to be dead! He doesn't even deserve to live!"

"Good job Naruto! I knew you were the only one who could defeat him!"

"Why didn't you kill him already?"

And the list went on... Naruto tightened his fists and tried to keep his cool. He really hated when people did that; judging people without knowing them. They had absolutely no respect whatsoever, in his opinion.

"That kind of hurts," Sasuke whispered, but he was amused.

The blond realized his grip on Sasuke's arm had tightened, a lot. He relaxed his hand and sighed.

"I'm sorry, it's just... I hate that. They say all those things but, they don't even know you. It pisses me off! How can you stay so calm?"

"I'm used to people talking about me. Whether it is bad, or good, I just don't care. I don't even listen."

"I guess I never got used to it like you."

"You never get used to it... but you can learn to ignore it."

"I guess..." Naruto sighed.

Still, he couldn't wait to see Tsunade. He knew she would have more respect...

xxx

Or maybe he had spoken too fast.

"You damn brat!" she said, addressing Naruto. "Do you know how much trouble you've caused?"

Tsunade was so angry that her face was all red. Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, Hinata, Naruto and Sasuke were standing in front of her, scared expressions on their faces. Except for Sasuke; he wasn't scared, he was just ignoring it, as usual.

Tsunade was breathing hard and she was tightening her fists.

"And you, Uchiha, do you have any idea, just the slightest, what trouble you have caused? Don't you have any regrets? Anything to explain yourself even a little?"

Tsunade got no reaction from Sasuke, so she looked back at Naruto. "Just remove that damn blindfold. I'm not scared of him."

"Hai," Naruto did as he was told.

Sasuke opened his black eyes and looked at Tsunade, calm as ever.

"I hope you know what's waiting for you in jail! I received a message from the Raikage and I know everything that happened! You won't escape so easily from here! I'm gonna have you isolated and highly guarded." she said threateningly.

Sasuke's face remained completely blank.

"That's it; it's completely useless to talk to you! Kiba, Hinata, Shino, bring him to jail, they'll know what to do there. I need to talk to Naruto!"

"No!" Naruto objected. "I'll bring him. It's still my mission. Baa-chan, I'm sorry, I know I've caused a lot of trouble. I'll come back right after to explain and talk to you."

Tsunade sighed, clearly wondering for the thousandth time why she could never say no to that damn kid, "Fine, hurry up." Then, turning to the others, "You can go, take a day off to rest. I'll call you when I have another mission for your team."

Naruto took Sasuke's arm and led him to Konoha's prison. He didn't need to hold him anymore; he wasn't blindfolded. But he liked to keep the contact, the touch between them. He needed it, because he knew that soon it wouldn't be possible anymore. Sasuke didn't protest.

"Tsunade no baa-chan has quite a temper... sorry about that. She was probably just trying to scare you." Naruto said.

Sasuke stayed silent. He wanted to say something, anything, to tell Naruto how he felt, but he didn't know how. He didn't even know what to say.

Once they were at the prison, the man made responsible for Sasuke by the Hokage led them to his assigned cell. He was a skilled anbu member. Taking a look at it, they immediately saw that it was much better than in Kumogakure. There was a small bed, a little private bathroom and a little desk and chair.

The guardian opened the door and waited for Sasuke to get in. The raven looked at Naruto; the blond was still holding him by the arm. He didn't want to let go.

"I know the Hokage made you responsible, but I'm responsible too since it's technically my mission." Naruto started.

The man nodded. Naruto was much respected in the village, and this one was no exception.

"There will be no torture, you'll feed him appropriately and if he needs something or if something is wrong, you get me immediately, is everything clear?"

"Hai," the man answered.

"If I find out there's been something going on that I don't approve of, you'll lose your job and you'll hear from me."

"I got it," he was getting exasperated by Naruto now.

"Sorry, I just needed to make that clear."

He let go of Sasuke's arm. Looking into those beautiful dark eyes, he just wanted to pull him close and hold him tight, but he couldn't. Not here, not in front of that guy...

"I'll come back as soon as I can," he said.

Sasuke got in the cell and the anbu closed and locked the door. The raven nodded and watched as Naruto walked away.

When he was left alone, he suddenly realized what had just happened. 'Damn you Naruto... you really did bring me back to Konoha...' he thought, smiling inwardly. He would never have thought... But he couldn't help but think, being locked up in a cell like that, he didn't know how long he would last without trying to escape again...


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"You better explain yourself now, brat! You ran away with Sasuke! Was that your master plan from the start or what?" Tsunade said threateningly.

"And don't try to make excuses for yourself!" Sakura added.

He was scared now, standing in front of those two pissed off girls. Damn women, they're so troublesome, he thought. Great now he was thinking like Shikamaru...

"And why the hell aren't you wearing a shirt?" Tsunade asked.

"If you just let me explain..."

"Go on, we're listening!" Sakura frowned.

He sighed, and started speaking. He wasn't interrupted this time. While he was telling them the story, their expressions softened. They knew he had probably gone through a lot of trouble, but they hadn't expected Naruto to be so tired and emotionally drained. He told them everything (except the hot spring part, he just figured he could leave that part out) and then held his breath, waiting for their reactions.

Tsunade spoke first. "I guess I'm not really surprised that he easily escaped from the Raikage's prison. I've heard that man is so careless when it comes to treating his prisoners. You're lucky though, he doesn't blame you at all; he only puts more blame on the Uchiha..."

He better not blame him, after all, he had agreed that if Naruto found him first, he could bring him back. A deal was a deal.

"How is Sasuke?" Sakura asked timidly. "Does he still need medical attention?"

Naruto shook his head and smiled. "Hinata did a really great job. I'm really proud of her. But you can still check on him if you want."

The pink-haired girl nodded. "Okay. Well, I'll go see him as soon as I'm done with Karin I guess..."

"What?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Sakura and Shikamaru are training the three people that were with Sasuke before. They're on probation to officially become Konoha shinobi." Tsunade explained.

Naruto smiled. "That's great!"

"I wouldn't exactly say that," Sakura growled.

"You're having trouble with Karin?" Naruto laughed.

"No, with Suigetsu! He's always interrupting us in our training! He's fooling around and doing crazy things and when I try to hit him, he turns into water and Karin laughs and ugh, it's so annoying!"

"I can imagine!" Naruto chuckled.

"Anyway, I have to go back. See you later, Naruto; I'm glad you're okay! But don't forget to visit me at the hospital if you want me to check up on you, too."

"All right, thanks Sakura-chan!"

He was surprised; she was actually acting very nice for once and she hadn't even hit him! Now time to deal with Tsunade...

"Look, baa-chan, like I said before, I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused. You know how much I wanted that mission to be a success; whatever that means... I guess I just wanted to see for myself if Sasuke... well..."

"If he was still the same guy you knew and loved?" Tsunade finished for him.

Naruto looked at her with wide blue eyes.

The blonde woman chuckled softly. "I know what it's like... But in my case, Orochimaru was no longer himself, and it was far too late for him. I just hope it's not too late for your friend..."

"It's not!" Naruto exclaimed. "I promise he won't try anything. I just know it!"

Tsunade shook her head sadly. "I can't let him out of prison now. The villagers won't feel safe. I also have to discuss it with the other Kages. You knew it wouldn't be that easy, Naruto. I'm sorry..."

The blond nodded. "I know. It's not your fault. I guess I was just hoping that... since Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo are on probation..."

"It's not the same thing." She said sadly.

"I get it. Oh, I almost forgot, when you speak with the Kages, well the Raikage, actually, can you ask him a favour for me?"

She frowned. "I can try, what is it?"

"There's a certain sword that I would like to get back..."

xxx

Sasuke felt lonely in his prison cell. He missed Naruto, more than he had imagined. He received some visitors, but it wasn't the same…

When Sakura went to see Sasuke, she was... confused. Actually, she didn't know if she should be mad, disappointed, upset, sad, relieved or happy... Seeing her old teammate again just brought up so many emotions. So she did what she knew best; she took on the role of the excellent medical ninja that she was.

She asked the anbu prison guard to open the cell for her. Since she was the Hokage's assistant, and she had quite a scary reputation, he decided to obey. Sakura entered the cell and looked at the prisoner. Sasuke just sat quietly on his bed, looking at the wall in front of him, bored as ever.

"Are you going to ignore me?" Sakura finally broke the silence.

She got no answer. She tried to stop her voice from trembling.

"All right, lie down; I'm going to check if your injuries are all healed well."

Sasuke didn't move.

"It's the procedure, I have to check." She lied.

Without a word, he did what he was told. She started checking him, but then she frowned.

"Remove your shirt, please."

He raised a brow, but did what he was told again. He had taken off the bandages himself before taking a shower, and he had noticed there were a lot of scars on his chest. He guessed there were a lot on his back too. But they were just scars; he wondered what Sakura wanted to see.

She used her chakra, working on his skin, and he felt tingling sensations.

"Turn on your back, please." She requested, very professional.

He obeyed again, wondering what she was doing exactly. His skin felt itchy where she was healing it. When it was done, she smiled, satisfied with her good work. Instead of being red, the scars were now almost completely healed and only left thin white marks on his pale skin; in other words, barely visible.

"I used my medical skills and chakra to fasten the natural healing processes of your skin." She explained.

He was speechless; he had no idea Sakura was that talented.

"I guess I shouldn't expect any gratitude from you." She snorted.

But he shook his head and looked up at her. "Thank you," he said.

Her green eyes widened and she went quiet. Hearing his deep low voice made her realize this was really Sasuke in front of her. It wasn't just a stranger or any criminal, it was her childhood friend, and her long lost love.

"You're welcome," she smiled. Then she remembered something, "Oh I brought you clean clothes. Naruto gave them to me for you."

At the mention of Naruto, Sasuke's ears perked up. She took the clothes out of her bag and handed them to him. He wanted to ask her why Naruto didn't come himself, but he stayed silent.

"Before I leave, I just wanted to say this..." Sakura took in a deep breath. "I just hope you know how much pain you caused Naruto all these years. He was so miserable... but he kept smiling and pretending everything was okay. But I knew better. He went through so much shit because of you. You can't even imagine... Anyway I don't know why I'm telling you all this... I guess I just want it to stop. I want him to be happy, because he deserves it. So don't... just don't ruin everything."

With that, she left, telling the guard to lock up his cell. He sighed and ran a pale hand through raven locks, Sakura's words lingering in his head. He shook his thoughts away and changed into the clothes she had brought him. A white t-shirt with a swirl on it and orange pants… Great.

xxx

The next day, he felt even more lonely and bored to death. He did some muscular exercises and flexing, but there was not much else he could do in the little cell. He kept thinking about Naruto. He was always trying to push the thoughts away, but they would always come back. He still had nightmares; images of Itachi dying by his hand, but now added to that there were images of a younger Naruto crying and holding his chest painfully, or another version where the blond was fighting but being outnumbered and he was dying. In his dreams he was trying to reach for him but he couldn't... he was always too far.

"Uchiha, you have a visitor."

Sasuke looked up, hoping to see a certain someone, but it was Suigetsu.

"Hey man what's up?"

"Well, you know, I'm in jail."

"Yeah I heard. So Naruto told us what happened..."

"He did?" Sasuke looked up.

"Yeah! Well he didn't go into details but... What's with you? You're... different." Suigetsu frowned but he was smiling.

"I'm not." Sasuke replied.

"Yeah you are," Suigetsu insisted. "The Sasuke I know would never agree to be locked up in a cell. Especially not in Konoha of all places."

"I didn't exactly have a choice."

"Oh please," Suigetsu teased. "You and I both know you could destroy this whole place and kill everyone in your way if you wanted to."

"Maybe I don't want to. What about you? You're working for Konoha now?"

"Yeah well... on probation. It's fun. Shikamaru and Sakura are annoying. But since Naruto's there too, it's a lot more fun!"

"What do you mean since Naruto's there?"

"He's doing extra work for, like, punishment or something. You know, for helping you against the sound ninjas, and then helping you run away… Not that I'm trying to make you feel guilty or anything," he added teasingly. "So he's training us. Well we always end up fighting just for fun and annoying the hell out of Sakura and Karin more than anything, but that's why it's so much fun!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

"He's a cool guy! I get why you like him so much, I mean if I were into guys, I'd totally go for him..."

"What the hell are you on about?"

"Nothing..." Suigetsu smiled.

"Where are the others?"

"Oh they're waiting outside. They told us we could only come one at a time. I guess I should go get Jugo now. Have fun in jail!"

"Idiot..."

With Jugo it was a much more quiet and civilized conversation. Jugo explained to him that Naruto was really busy with all the extra work he had to do in the village for his punishment, so that was why he couldn't come and visit Sasuke. He also said that Naruto was working hard with the Hokage to try to take arrangements with the other Kages on his case.

"I'm sure Naruto and the Hokage will get you out of here soon." Was the last thing Jugo said before leaving.

As soon as Karin saw him, she burst out laughing.

"What?" he asked.

"It's just... too funny... your clothes," she managed to say between laughs.

"Hn... they're the dobe's clothes."

"Sorry..." she said, trying to stop laughing. "So how have you been?"

He glared.

"Okay stupid question," she said. "I should just be glad I'm not in the cell next to you... we were pretty lucky to be on probation right away."

"I guess."

She replaced her glasses and cleared her throat. "So, I, huh, wanted to ask you something. You know I was very curious and..."

"What?" he interrupted.

"Well, when you ran away that night, when Shikamaru and the blonde girl were supposed to keep guard, why did you bring Naruto with you? It's not like you..."

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't know... there was no time to think. Why do you care about that?"

"I'm just curious!" she giggled.

After that she just left without one more word, leaving Sasuke very confused. What the hell was that all about? Stupid girls...

That night he kept doing exercises to bring his body in good shape again. But that was just an excuse he made for himself because he didn't want to sleep... The nightmares would still haunt him, he just knew it.

When Naruto finally had some free time from all the tasks and missions he had to accomplish for the Hokage, without even getting paid, he ran to go see Sasuke. He had missed him a lot, and he had been worried too. Every day he was scared that the raven would run away again, or be tortured maybe, or... he was just being paranoid, but he needed to see him.

He arrived in front of the cell panting. The guard had looked up, but when he saw who it was he had just let him go.

"Sasuke I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier..." he started but he stopped when he saw him.

The raven was sitting in the corner of his room, his arms around his legs, eyes open but blurry, looking in the emptiness.

"Sasuke? Teme? Are you okay? You're freaking me out!" he screamed.

Sasuke finally snapped out of it and locked eyes with Naruto. He stood up and walked towards Naruto.

"Hey, it's really you this time," Sasuke whispered more to himself, putting his hand on the cold metal of the cell.

Naruto noticed he had big rings under his eyes. "Sasuke you're not sleeping, are you?"

Sasuke glanced away. "I don't know."

"When was the last time you slept?"

"Before Jugo and the two idiots visited me, I think..."

"That was five days ago! I remember I couldn't go with them because the Hokage gave me another task..."

"Only five days? It felt longer..."

Naruto sighed and took Sasuke's hand through the cell.

"I'll get you out of here soon, okay? I'm just trying to convince everyone..."

Sasuke shook his head. "You don't have to do this."

"I know. But I want to."

They looked at each other intensely for a moment, but they were interrupted.

"Uzumaki, the Hokage wants to see you immediately!" An Anbu screamed at him.

"Damn! They won't let me five freakin' minutes!" Naruto growled, annoyed. Then he turned to Sasuke. "I'll come back faster this time. Try to sleep okay?"

Sasuke watched him walk away, and then he sighed and let his body slide down to the floor. Naruto was right; maybe he should try to sleep...


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter 16_

_He was walking through a maze. Everything seemed so real.__ It was dark and the air was thick, he had trouble breathing properly. He was trying to find his way but he was just turning around in circles. There was just no exit to this damned thing... Suddenly he stopped; someone was in front of him, someone with a long black ponytail and traits that resembled his._

"_Ni-san!" he screamed and ran towards him._

_But just before he reached him, Itachi transformed into raven birds that started attacking him. __He tried to escape but it wasn't working. They were aggressive and his skin was bleeding at several places._

"_Just get off me!" he screamed and produced a fire attack._

_As the black birds were burning he ran away from that place. He wasn't looking in front of him so he didn't realize he wasn't in the maze anymore. He was running towards a cliff but before he could realize it he was falling from so high. He kept falling and falling, but then someone caught him before he could hit the ground and die._

"_Naruto!" he said when he recognized him._

_Naruto smiled sadly and put him on the ground softly. Then he walked away without a word._

"_Wait!" he screamed, but it was no use._

_He tried to get up but he couldn't move, his body seemed glued to the ground. Naruto suddenly stopped and turned around, holding a kunai in his hands, prepared to fight. There were a lot of ninjas around the blond, and he knew they were ninjas who wanted him dead, and Naruto was still trying to protect him from them._

_Naruto__ was outnumbered and received fatal injuries. Sasuke wanted to get up to go help him but he couldn't move._

"_Naruto!" he screamed as he saw all the blood that was covering him. His blue eyes closed and he fell to the ground._

"_No!" Sasuke shouted again._

_Sakura's voice echoed in his head__. "It's your entire fault. Do you know how much troubled you caused him? He went through so much shit… I just wanted it to stop! It's your fault..."_

"Uchiha! Wake up! You have a visitor!" a voice shouted and his eyes opened.

He gasped, he would never get used to these damned nightmares. Naruto had been gone on a mission for four days now and he was worried. He knew he shouldn't be; Naruto knew how to defend himself, but he couldn't help it. When he saw who the visitor was, he was disappointed because it wasn't Naruto, but he was intrigued, what was she doing here?

"Hi Sasuke, long time no see." The blonde girl smiled.

"Ino? Why are you here?"

"I see you haven't gotten nicer with time. I just wanted to see you. I wanted to know for myself if what Naruto says is true."

"And what would that be?"

"That you deserve a second chance."

"Oh..."

"I personally think everyone deserves a second chance." She smiled. "So, hum… do you want to hear the latest news about the village?"

"Hn..."

"I'll take that as a yes! Well your three ex-teammates went on their first official mission, with Shikamaru as their leader, troublesome as he found it, he was actually impressed with their skills and he told me the mission went very well! I think the weird guy with the silver hair and the red-head girl are officially together as a couple now. Anyway, they are no longer on probation, so Shikamaru took this opportunity to make a little visit to the sand. Apparently Kankuro needs help for a mission... Yeah right," Ino laughed and rolled her eyes. "Sakura keeps telling me she wants to come see you again, but she doesn't know if she should. I think she's really confused. It's really annoying; she tells me the same thing everyday! Should I go see him, Ino? I don't know what to think of him anymore! Anyway, I guess that's why I decided to come see you myself."

Sasuke had listened to her quietly. The part about Suigetsu and Karin had made him smile, but he was actually hoping that she would give him some news about Naruto.

As if she read his mind, she said, "Oh yeah, and Naruto came back from his mission. He says he's really proud of Konohamaru's progress. When he came back he had to hurry up to go to a meeting with Tsunade-sama. It's about you, actually. They're discussing if you should be put on probation, too. I heard most of the Kages have accepted their conditions so far."

Sasuke looked up. "What conditions?"

"Well, from what I heard, and I'm only guessing the rest but, you'll probably have Anbu members watching you at all times, to make sure you don't try anything dangerous. You'll probably have a few ninjas assigned to, well watch over you - because you don't really need any training, I suppose - during your probation, to decide if you could work for us again. It'll probably take longer than for your friends, though. It will be annoying to have people watch you all the time..."

"It's better than here..." Sasuke interrupted.

Ino smiled. "Yeah anything's better than here right? And if everything goes well, you'll eventually be completely free."

Sasuke nodded and it was quiet for a while. Then Ino's smile widened.

"Those clothes look really funny on you. Sorry I just had to say it!"

Sasuke sighed, "They're Naruto's actually..."

"I could have guessed that. Who wears orange?" Ino laughed. "They're so not your colour. When you get out, I'll take you shopping! It's decided!"

Sasuke actually laughed a little at this, and Ino's smile widened even more, her eyes lighting up. She stayed for a while, talking about the village and telling some more news about her friends. Before leaving, she gave him some things.

"Here, take it," she said giving him a flower, "it will put a little colour in here, plus it smells really good!" She smiled, "Oh and I also brought you a book! None of the porn stuff like Kakashi's reading all the time don't worry. It's actually pretty good."

Sasuke was surprised. "Thanks, that's actually really nice."

"No problem! If you need anything else, just ask me! Well, I was really glad to see you again, and I'll give all my support to Naruto in his attempt to free you." She said before leaving.

xxx

Time was still excruciatingly slow, but it was a little better with the book Ino gave him. At least it was interesting to read.

The next day, he was already almost finished reading when someone else came to see him.

"Uchiha, you have a..."

"Sasuke!" A very unique voice exclaimed before the guardian could finish his sentence.

"Why do I even bother with this?" The anbu sighed.

"I have some good news!" the blond exclaimed, panting like he had been running all the way to the jail and his cell (which was probably the case).

Sasuke looked up from his book and smirked. "What? You have a discount at Ichiraku ramen?"

"Sasuke! You think this is the time to make jokes?"

The raven put his book away and looked at Naruto. "I'm all ears." He said teasingly.

"I did it, Sasuke! You can be on probation! Of course you'll have a lot of surveillance and you won't be completely free but..."

"It's still better than here," Sasuke repeated the same thing he had told Ino.

"Yeah! Baa-chan and I still have the last details to prepare. I want to choose the Anbu that will watch you myself. I want reliable and discreet people. And as for the ninja who will train with you and note your progress, well guess who it is?" Naruto grinned.

"Oh you got me there Naruto. I really have no idea." Sasuke said sarcastically.

Naruto ignored him. "At first baa-chan didn't want me to do it. But since I did all my other tasks and missions so well, and for free, she decided I could do it. And I think what convinced her also, was when I told her anyone else training with you would probably not survive it."

"That's a valid point."

"Isn't it?" Naruto smiled. "So I'll make everything ready, and tomorrow you can get out of here!"

Sasuke nodded. "I guess... I should..." he hesitated.

"What?" Naruto asked, amused.

"Thank you..."

Damn, he was doing this a lot lately. But Naruto just shrugged it off.

"I'm sure you would have done the same! So, what's with the book and the flower? Did Sakura come visit you again?"

"Oh, no actually it was Ino."

"Oh," Naruto frowned. "I should have thought of that, bringing you some reading."

"Dobe, it's okay, I know you don't read."

The blond laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, you're right. So are the... dreams getting better?" he said, serious again.

Sasuke's eyes darkened. "Well, I guess I'm getting used to it."

"That sucks! But hey, I'm sure when you get out of here they'll go away! So I'd better go do my job! See you tomorrow!"

Sasuke nodded with a little smile on his lips as Naruto walked away. He was impressed but at the same time he had known all along. Somehow he had known Naruto could do it; it was like that guy could do anything if he wanted to. Well, except having a fashion sense, but everyone had his weaknesses...

xxx

Naruto couldn't sleep that night. He kept thinking about Sasuke, and what it would be like when he was freed the next day. Well he wouldn't really be free, there would be four experienced Anbu members watching his every move all the time, but that was okay. Naruto had chosen them to be very quiet and professional.

Actually one of them was Neji. He was in the Anbu now and one of Tsunade's conditions was that he chose him. She thought he was the most qualified for the job because he was a cautious man that didn't believe Sasuke had good intentions at all. So it would balance out with Naruto's optimism. The blond sighed; he was worried Neji would ruin everything by attacking Sasuke at the first slightly suspicious move he did. But it wasn't like he had a choice.

Oh well, he wouldn't let Neji ruin his good mood. The next day would be awesome. All his hard work and efforts would finally pay off, and Sasuke would be out of jail. He couldn't wait to just hold him in his arms again. He would show them, all of the villagers, Tsunade, everyone, that it wasn't too late for Sasuke. He just needed someone to believe in him, and Naruto was that person.


	17. Chapter 17

"Sasuke! Wake up!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically as the prison guard opened the cell.

The raven opened his eyes and got up. He shook his head slightly and made a little smile at Naruto's antics.

"You're out of here! Come on!"

Naruto took Sasuke by the hand and led him outside. Neji and the three other Anbu were waiting for them. Naruto wanted to take Sasuke in his arms and hold him tight, but he knew this wasn't the right time, so instead he let go of his hand and cleared his throat.

"Sasuke, these are the Anbu that will keep watch over you during your probation."

Neji glared. "You'd better watch yourself Uchiha, cause I'll never be far."

Sasuke glared back and smirked. "Or if you want to settle this right now, Hyuga. I've been bored to shit in that cell, and I could do with a little fight."

They were about to start fighting right there but Naruto stood between them.

"Guys, what the fuck? Neji, you're not supposed to threaten him, please be professional! And you," he turned to Sasuke and his blue eyes showed he was upset, "do you want to go back in jail, after all my efforts?" he added in a low voice.

Sasuke went quiet and glanced away, frowning slightly.

Neji took a step back. "You're lucky Naruto's protecting you, Uchiha, cause I wouldn't hesitate to..."

"Neji!" Naruto snapped.

The black-haired man stepped back, biting his words. Naruto looked at the four men and nodded, signalling them to start doing their job now. They scattered to be able to watch from a further distance. Neji was the last one to go, not before one last glare at Sasuke.

"All right, huh... I'll show you your temporary apartment."

The blond started walking, Sasuke behind him. As they walked throughout the village, the reactions were different than the first time.

A lot of people were whispering.

"Is that Uchiha?"

"Yes, I heard he's getting out of jail."

"Can we trust him?"

"I don't know, but Naruto trusts him, so I think we're safe."

"Yeah, if Uzumaki trusts him, I trust him too."

As they walked, Naruto glanced sideways at Sasuke to see his reaction. The raven seemed amused, actually.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, intrigued.

"The villagers, they finally acknowledged you, huh? No more making fun of you."

The blond smiled. "Yeah, things changed a lot."

"You made them change." Sasuke replied.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned. "Yeah, I'm awesome like that!"

Sasuke shook his head. "Don't you want to remind them sometimes? How much shit you've been through when you were a kid, just because of them?"

Naruto's smile became sad. "Of course there's a part of me that still thinks about that sometimes. But... what's the point, you know? It's all in the past now."

"It may be in the past, but the memories will always be there."

"You have to learn to live with them." Naruto said.

Sasuke didn't reply. As he glanced at his sad profile Naruto kind of wished he would open up more. But he didn't want to force him.

A few minutes later, he opened the door to Sasuke's apartment.

"It's small, but comfortable." Naruto explained. "It's like, almost next door to mine, so if you need anything I won't be far. Oh and I already put some food in your kitchen. Because I know you don't have any money, so I didn't want you to starve."

Sasuke nodded quietly and went in the kitchen to see what food the blond had given him.

"Ramen? Why am I not surprised!" Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, it's all I had." Naruto said apologetically.

"It's okay, it can't be worst than the food in jail." He frowned. "I can feel their chakra, the anbu people. They're really gonna follow me everywhere..."

"Yeah it's kind of annoying, but we don't have a choice. It's extra precaution."

Sasuke smirked. "What about you? Do you still think extra precaution is needed?"

Naruto raised a fine blond eyebrow and walked up to Sasuke. "I don't know... Should I?"

"We'll see."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked threateningly.

Sasuke didn't reply, but he was still smirking.

"It's not funny!"

"I'm just fucking with you dobe."

"Bastard!" Naruto shouted and pushed him, but his clumsy movements made them both fall on the floor, the blond on top of the raven.

Sasuke smirked. "It's just so easy to mess with you."

"Shut up teme!" Naruto replied but he was smiling too.

Sasuke flipped them around so he was on top now. Naruto was struggling but it was just for fun, they weren't really fighting.

"I missed this," Naruto said with a smile.

"What?"

"I don't know... I guess I missed you."

Sasuke's eyes widened, he wanted to tell him how much he had missed him too. He didn't really know how to say it or where to start; he wasn't used to talking about his feelings. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

He got up and went to answer it, while Naruto got up as well. It was Ino and Sakura.

"Hello Sasuke!" Ino said.

"Sasuke-kun, Naruto, how are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"Great! Sasuke's finally out of jail so it's awesome." Naruto smiled.

Sasuke stepped aside to let them in, and then he closed the door.

"Oh, Ino, I wanted to give this back to you." Sasuke went to get her book, that he had put down on a low table.

"Thank you! So, did you like it?" she asked.

While they were talking about Ino's book, Sakura went to talk with Naruto.

"So, how's it going so far?"

Naruto sighed. "Well Neji might cause some problems, but I'll do my best to keep him away unless he's really needed. But other than that, everything's going well so far."

"Great, I'm glad." Sakura smiled and looked at Sasuke. "Maybe you're right, maybe he really changed."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know if it's about changing, but what he's been going through was really hard, I mean anyone would be affected. He just needs to heal from all that, you know."

"And I guess it takes more than medical ninjutsu to heal from those kinds of wounds..." Sakura sighed.

"Yeah..."

"All right, it's a date then!" Ino exclaimed excitedly, making them both look in her direction.

"What was that all about?" Sakura asked.

"Oh nothing, we're just going shopping tomorrow!" the blonde smiled.

Sasuke cleared his throat. "Uh... Ino, I don't even know if I'm aloud to..."

"Of course, yeah, no problem," Naruto interrupted. "I'll tell the Anbu so they'll know what to expect."

"Thanks Naruto!" Ino smiled.

"No problem!" He said again.

"So, I have to go back to my training with my Dad, but I'll see you tomorrow!" she told Sasuke before leaving.

"As for me," Sakura said, "I have to go back in my office to help Tsunade-sama with some paperwork. It would be good if you came to see her when you have some time, Sasuke. To thank her for everything she's done, I mean of course Naruto helped a lot too but still, she's the Hokage."

"I will." He said.

She nodded and smiled, "All right, see you guys later then!"

When she was gone, Naruto glanced at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. "Shopping? With Ino?"

Sasuke smirked. "What? You're jealous?"

"Of whom exactly am I supposed to be jealous here?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Whatever teme, I'm not jealous, it's just weird. But I guess you could do with some new clothes, these ones are too big for your skinny ass."

"Too big? That's not exactly the problem."

The blond frowned. "What, there's nothing wrong with these clothes!"

"The colour."

"What? The colour's fine. Okay maybe not white, you're pale enough already, but orange is awesome!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah right."

"Bastard."

"Do you want to do some training?"

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Yeah sure let's go!"

Sasuke shook his head, a smile on his lips, and followed the blond outside. Naruto led them to the same place where Kakashi had first trained them all those years ago. He wanted to try to remind Sasuke of this good memory they could share. Glancing at the raven, he knew it had worked; he was looking around him, lost in his thoughts, a little smile lingering on his lips. His black eyes lingered on the memorial rock where all the names of the ninja who had given their lives for the village were written. Then he looked back at the blond and smirked.

"When do we start?"

They practiced their tai jutsu all day long, finding they were perfect training partners because their forces were balanced and equal. Well actually Naruto was slightly stronger, but Sasuke was faster. Naruto was pleased; it had been a while since he'd had a worthy training partner. Besides, he found he enjoyed just being with Sasuke. It didn't matter if they were training, talking, or whatever else, really, it just felt good.

After several hours of non-stop training they ended up lying down on the ground next to each other, exhausted and panting, but feeling relaxed.

"It feels good." Sasuke breathed. "I hated staying still in a fucking prison cell."

"I know. I was so worried that you would escape, not because you wanted to cause trouble, but just because it was too boring." Naruto laughed.

"You have no idea how fucking boring it was. But oh well, wouldn't want to waste all your efforts, mister future Hokage."

Naruto smiled, but he didn't reply.

"How did you do it anyway?" Sasuke turned on his side to look at the blond, pulling himself up on his elbow.

For a moment Naruto just stared at him. Gorgeous onyx eyes were staring back under sleek raven bangs. Naruto thought that he could just look at him all the time, and never get bored.

"I just... Well it was a lot of negotiations but… I told them I'd take all the blame and responsibility on me if something bad happened." He finally answered.

Sasuke's black eyes widened. "Naruto..." he whispered.

"But I think what really convinced them is when I told them I was way stronger than you anyway, so if you tried something it would be very easy for me to stop you." Naruto added with a teasing smile, lightening the mood.

"Oh, you think?" Sasuke sat up and looked down at Naruto.

"Yeah."

"You think you're so stronger than me?"

Naruto nodded. "Uh-huh"

Sasuke climbed on him and they started fighting again, struggling and turning on the training grounds. Eventually Sasuke immobilised Naruto, pinning his legs, and one hand pinning his wrists while the other was holding a kunai at Naruto's throat.

He smirked. "I win."

But Naruto didn't have time to reply, because someone else was running towards them and attacked Sasuke.

"Neji stop!" the blond shouted in warning.

But the Anbu didn't listen; he tried to attack Sasuke's vital organs with his palms. But Sasuke was faster, he backed off quickly, his eyes turning red. Neji didn't seem scared in the slightest though, and he ran toward Sasuke again. He tried to strike at Sasuke's vital organs with his fists again. But Sasuke was seeing through every move, and he was evading every attack. But it was clear he didn't want to fight back. Naruto's heart squeezed painfully at the thought that it was his fault; Sasuke was probably scared that his efforts would go to waste if he dared harm an Anbu. And because Sasuke wasn't defending himself properly, Neji was able to hit him.

Naruto quickly ran towards them and pushed Neji to the ground. "What the fuck, Neji?" he shouted angrily before sitting beside Sasuke.

The raven was spitting blood and holding his chest. "Fucking Hyuga, what the hell..." he said in a low but threatening voice.

"I thought you were trying to kill Naruto. You were holding a kunai at his throat." Neji said simply, he didn't seem remorseful at all.

Sasuke didn't reply.

"I'm taking Sasuke to the hospital. I'll deal with you later, Neji." Naruto said threateningly.

"I was only doing my job..."

"Shut up!" Naruto interrupted.

"It's okay dobe," Sasuke said between two coughs, "he's just trying to protect you."

Neji seemed surprised at Sasuke's reply, but he didn't say anything. Naruto took Sasuke's arm and put it around his shoulders, while he put his other arm around the raven's thin waist.

"Let's go see Sakura..." he said, and without so much as a glance at Neji, they left.

"Well, he didn't go easy on you." Sakura said after she was done healing him. "But with two days of rest, you should be fine."

Sasuke grunted. "Great. Instead of being stuck in jail, now I'm stuck here."

Naruto frowned. "Neji will pay for this, I'll..."

"Naruto," Sasuke interrupted, locking eyes with him, "don't. He didn't do anything wrong, he was just doing his job."

"Why are you defending him now?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Because, I would have done the same thing he did, if my job were to protect you..." Sasuke said.

Naruto turned to Sakura. "How much sedative did you give him?"

"A lot." She said.

"All right teme, you rest now, I'll visit you later."

"Okay..."

When Naruto was gone, Sakura took Sasuke's hand. His onyx eyes were half closed but he still gave her a questioning look.

"Don't worry" she said. "I'm the best medic around here, you'll be fine. Oh and I'll tell Ino for you that you can't go to that little date tomorrow."

She smiled seductively and caressed his hand one more time before leaving the room to let him sleep.

xxx

Neji was waiting at the main entrance of the hospital. When he saw Naruto, he walked up to him.

"Look I'm sorry..."

"I know... Look he'll be fine, it just sucks that this happened. He actually told me that I shouldn't be mad at you and that he would have done the same thing, if he were in your place."

"He said that?"

The blond sighed. "Yeah... just be more careful ok? You can come out to ask if everything's all right, but don't attack without knowing like that."

Neji nodded. "Of course, it won't happen again."

Naruto was about to walk away, but Neji stopped him.

"Oi Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you really trust him?"

Naruto didn't hesitate one second. "Yes."

"How can you? I mean, after everything he's done!"

"It's complicated... but yeah I do trust him." He smiled.

Neji shook his head. "It just won't be that easy for me. He'll have to prove himself, and that might take a while, if it ever happens."

"I know, but that's okay. Anyway, thanks Neji."

"For what?" the brunette frowned.

"Well, you did want to protect me after all. And you came here to apologize."

Neji smiled. "You really are amazing, Naruto."

"Yeah I know! See ya!" Naruto laughed and walked away.

Neji went to see the other Anbu that was posted in a tree, beside Sasuke's hospital room.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, he's just sleeping. Hey Neji, don't you think this is useless, what we're doing? I mean if he really wanted to do something, he could have done it a while ago."

Neji sighed. "Maybe you're right. Still, it's hard for me to trust him. But I'll try, for Naruto's sake..."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Naruto woke up early the next morning, and that was something very rare when he didn't have any mission or obligation to attend. But he only had one thing in mind that morning; he wanted to go see Sasuke at the hospital as soon as possible. So he took a shower, put on some clothes and ran straight to the hospital and Sasuke's room. He stopped when he got to the door. It was barely open, but he could see inside. Sakura was sitting next to the bed and Sasuke was still asleep. The pink-haired girl was holding Sasuke's hand and she was caressing his raven hair. Naruto felt possessive as he saw this. He knew he was being foolish, but he didn't like that Sakura was doing that. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and walked in the room.

"Hey Sakura! How is he?" he asked softly.

She jumped and removed her hands, making the raven wake up.

"Maybe he can tell us himself. How are you feeling Sasuke?"

The raven tried to sit up but winced because of the pain. Sakura pushed him back down on the bed roughly.

"You can't move like that yet! You have to lie down." She said with authority.

Naruto went to stand on the other side of the bed. He wanted to touch Sasuke's arm, lean closer to him, but he was shy because of Sakura. He noticed the familiar look of pain in the raven's eyes.

"Nightmares?" he whispered.

Sasuke glanced at him and there was no need for words, his eyes said it all. His dreams must have been pretty awful these days, the stress of being back in Konoha was probably not helping, Naruto thought.

"Actually, you did speak in your sleep. Sometimes you were talking about Itachi and..." Sakura commented.

Sasuke winced at the name of his brother and Naruto glared at her. "Did you spend the entire night here or what?"

She blushed. "No! It was, uh, this morning, that I heard it. Anyway, I have to go take care of my other patients now."

She left the room quickly. Sasuke tried to sit again and Naruto helped him this time.

"Thanks." The raven said.

"No problem." Naruto said while sitting next to him. "So how are you?"

"I'm fine. I can't wait to get out of here..."

"Yeah I totally understand I mean, I hate being at the hospital. When I come back from missions Sakura always insists that I come here but I do everything I can to avoid it."

Sasuke smirked. "Do you want to..."

"What?"

"Sneak out?"

Naruto laughed. "Sasuke, you had trouble just sitting!"

"I'm fine" the raven insisted stubbornly.

"All right get up then." Naruto said more as a joke than anything.

But Sasuke got up in one quick movement, probably hoping to prove that he was just fine. It wasn't such a good idea though; he lost his balance. Naruto, ever the knight in shining armour, caught him in his arms, laughing softly.

"See, told ya."

"I'm okay," Sasuke protested again.

"Sure you are!" Naruto rolled his eyes.

Naruto held him for a few more seconds, secretly enjoying the closeness, the warmth and the feeling of Sasuke's body. But the latter tried to stand on his own again, and this time it went better. He ripped off the tubes and iv that were connected to the machines and started looking for his clothes.

"Sasuke... maybe we shouldn't do this." Naruto said.

"I'm not staying here."

"You're so childish!"

"_You_ are telling _me_, that I'm childish? This is ironic." He smirked. "Come on Naruto, how many times have you sneaked out of the hospital?"

"Yeah I can't count them." Naruto admitted.

"Exactly. Now let's go."

"Hey!" Naruto protested weakly. "You're supposed to obey me, not the other way around!"

Sasuke was looking out the window. "We can jump on that tree. There's an anbu watching us, though, do you think he'll try anything?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not if I'm with you. I'll go first."

The blond placed himself in a crouching position on the border of the window, and then jumped graciously on a large branch.

Sasuke smiled. "You look like a fox, or a cat, or something."

"Shut up now jump before Sakura comes back and hits you for trying to sneak out! Which she'll do when she finds out, I'm warning you."

"She'd never hit me dobe. She'd hit you."

"Yeah you got a point…" he admitted reluctantly. Damn Sakura…

Sasuke jumped too, landing on another large branch and then he jumped on the ground and started running.

"Hey! Wait for me!" the blond shouted, running after him.

It wasn't too hard for him to catch up to Sasuke; he was still injured after all. That was probably why he stopped running and walked instead, when they were far enough from the hospital.

"Where are you going?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke didn't reply.

Naruto pouted, "You could at least answer me!"

But as they walked, they got closer to the edge of the village, and Naruto finally understood where Sasuke wanted to go.

"Am I still dreaming, Naruto?" he whispered.

It was Naruto's turn to stay quiet. He was looking in front of him, where the ancient Uchiha compound was.

"It looks exactly like in my dreams." Sasuke said as they walked inside.

The village hadn't been touched since the tragedy. But now it was all dusty and empty. Sasuke was walking fast; he knew where he was going and he wanted to get this over with. Naruto somehow knew how he felt.

He risked a glance at Sasuke when they stopped in front of a big house. It was his family's house, the one that held most of his childhood memories.

"Sasuke... are you sure...?"

The raven took a deep breath and stepped inside the house. It was empty, just as it should be. He closed his eyes and memories played inside of his head; his mother smiling, his father with his serious but proud expression, his brother playing with him... Then there were the bad memories too; that dreadful night when he was eight years old and he had come back home to see his parents dead... But when he opened his eyes it was empty again. No blood on the floor, no crime scene, nothing.

"Are you okay?" Naruto's voice asked, bringing him back to reality.

"I just... I've been dreaming of this place for so long. I guess I just wanted to see it for real. Just one last time."

The blond nodded, he understood. This place meant a lot to Sasuke and he knew it. But there was no point in staying here too long. It was just uselessly painful for the raven.

"Come on, let's go!" he said taking Sasuke's arm.

Sasuke followed him, but he still seemed lost in his thoughts. After a while, though, he realized where they were going.

"Dobe?"

"What?"

"Are we going to Ichiraku ramen?"

"Yeah."

"The only food you bring in my apartment is ramen, and now you're bringing me to a ramen restaurant?"

"But ramen is the best food ever! I could eat it everyday!"

"Naruto, you do eat ramen everyday."

"Oh right."

They arrived at the little restaurant and sat down, leaning on the counter.

"I'll have miso and... Sasuke what do you want?"

"Nothing I'm fine."

"You have to eat!"

"I don't have money."

"I know that's why I'm paying!"

"Naruto, you don't have to..."

The blond turned to the chef, "Two bowls please!"

The man nodded with a smile and started preparing their food.

Sasuke poked Naruto in the ribs. "Dobe, I told you I didn't want anything."

"I don't care, you have to eat! And stop poking me!"

Sasuke smirked, but he stopped. "Are you ticklish?"

Naruto blushed a little. "No!"

Sasuke was still smirking. "Yes you are."

"Maybe, whatever..."

The food was served in front of them, interrupting their little conversation. They ate in silence, then Naruto paid and they just walked in the village, checking out the stores and talking. Well, Naruto was making random comments and Sasuke was listening.

Sasuke suddenly stopped. "Maybe I should go..."

"What?" Naruto asked, confused.

The raven pointed one of the stores. Ino was standing in front of the door, waiting.

"Oh right! You were supposed to go do some girly shopping!"

"It's called wearing decent clothes, dobe, but you wouldn't know that of course."

"Whatever you say, have fun!" Naruto said teasingly.

Sasuke ignored him and walked towards Ino, who immediately smiled and threw herself in the raven's arms. Naruto felt a pang of jealousy in his heart when he saw this. Well, it looked like Ino and Sakura weren't having too much trouble accepting Sasuke again…

He felt like talking to someone, but he didn't know who to turn to. He walked in the village aimlessly, trying to find someone he knew. He would've liked to talk with Hinata, but she was gone on a new mission with her team. Sakura would kill him for helping Sasuke to leave the hospital. Shikamaru was in the Sand... Everyone was gone.

When he passed by the book store, he stopped short.

"Kakashi-sensei! I thought you were still on a mission!" he exclaimed.

The grey-haired man looked up from his book – porn, most likely - and looked at Naruto, smiling behind his mask.

"Hey Naruto! I came back from the mission earlier today. I went at the hospital for a check up... Sakura told me pretty much everything. She also told me to hit you if I saw you. She's very mad you know. But I don't feel like hitting you, so if she asks you just tell her that I did."

"Works for me!" Naruto laughed.

Kakashi walked out of the book store and they walked together in silence for a little while.

"So you brought Sasuke back here, huh?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I don't know," Kakashi hesitated. "What about you? How can you be so sure it's a good thing?"

"I trust him. He changed! He doesn't want revenge anymore." Naruto knew that was a touchy subject with Kakashi, because he had tried to tell Sasuke so many times before that revenge was not the solution.

"I hope you're right... but it's hard to believe."

"Look, you should talk to him, okay? And see for yourself." Naruto suggested.

"I don't really have anything to say to him, except that he's been a real pain in the ass for the last six years."

"But I'm sure he has a lot of things to say to you."

Kakashi looked at Naruto. "I'm really proud of you, you know that? I don't tell you often enough. All those years ago, Sasuke was the one who was making me the most proud, I have to admit. I even taught him the Chidori, how to control his sharingan, and pretty much everything I knew. But then, after everything I did for him, he turned to Orochimaru. He broke his bonds with us, just like that."

Naruto shook his head. "He never broke any bonds, Kakashi. You tell him what you just told me, and you hear his answer. Then you can make up your mind. Please, do it for me."

Kakashi nodded. "I will, but I can't promise I'll be nice to him."

Naruto smiled. "That's okay, as long as you don't kill each other!"

The blond was glad to talk with Kakashi, but he knew this wasn't the right person, or maybe just not the right timing, to talk about his feelings for Sasuke. So they just talked about random things until it started to get late and they both parted to go home.

Naruto sighed as he got in his apartment, ready to spend another evening alone. He wondered if Sasuke was still with Ino. He couldn't help but be jealous, and it was frustrating to him. Sasuke could do whatever he wanted after all, and spend his time with whoever he wanted…

He took off his shirt and lay down on his couch with his arms crossed behind his head, looking at the ceiling and spacing out. Until he heard knocks on his door.

"Come in!" he shouted, thinking it was probably Sakura that came to hit him and yell at him for sneaking out with Sasuke.

He heard the door open and close, and it was definitely too quiet to be Sakura. He sat and looked up.

"Sasuke! I didn't think it was you!" he smiled.

The raven raised a brow. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"No but I thought maybe it was Sakura, but then I didn't hear any yelling or shouting so it couldn't be her." He laughed.

"Right..."

Naruto got up and went closer to take a better look at Sasuke; he had his new clothes on.

"Look at you! This is so cool!"

Sasuke leaned on the wall and crossed his arms, smirking. "Yeah, feels good to be wearing something else than orange."

He was wearing black pants and a black shirt. Not too tight, just perfect for training and fighting. The shirt was v neck and had red and electric blue patterns on the front. It really made his pale skin and dark hair and eyes stand out. Naruto noticed he had a package in his hands.

"What's in there?" he asked, curious.

Sasuke handed it to him. "Gift. For you."

Naruto frowned and opened it. He gasped when he saw what it was.

"This is awesome!"

It was similar to Sasuke's clothes, but in his size and the shirt was round neck, with orange patterns on it. The rest was all black. He was really grateful actually, because his previous clothes had been damaged a lot lately...

"I don't know what to say."

Sasuke smirked. "Try them on."

"…Okay."

He blushed a little when he was only wearing boxers, and then he put the clothes on quickly.

"These are perfect! But, how did you pay for it?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I chose them and Ino paid."

"She did? Well, I'll have to thank her..."

"Well actually I'm gonna pay her back."

Naruto was embarrassed and didn't know how to react; he wasn't used to receive gifts.

"I'll give you something too! But I don't have it yet, so you'll have to wait." He smiled.

Sasuke raised a brow. "What is it?"

"I'm not telling you, it's a surprise."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever."

"You act like you don't care, but I'm sure you're dead curious!"

Sasuke didn't reply, so Naruto decided to change the subject.

"So how was your day with Ino?"

The raven shrugged. "It was okay."

"Wow, that was so detailed."

"Well, we just bought some clothes and then she showed me the Yamanaka flowers store. Unfortunately she thought I cared… Oh and then Sakura found us."

"Ouch."

"Yeah... well actually she wasn't mad at me. She got into a fight with Ino, though, so I got bored and I left."

"Can't believe they're already fighting for you, that was fast." Naruto muttered.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're a smart guy, Sasuke, but when it comes to feelings and relationships, you're completely helpless." Naruto smiled.

"Why are you telling me that?"

Naruto chuckled. "My point exactly. Anyway, just forget it, okay? I think I'm gonna go to bed, and you should do the same if you want to be ready for training tomorrow!"

Sasuke smirked. "Don't worry; I can kick your ass anytime."

"We'll see!"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

This time Naruto and Sasuke's training was more elaborate. They practiced their skills with kunai sparring and with their chakra control. Then they fought with tai jutsu, and Sasuke had the upper hand when they were interrupted.

"Hey Sasuke, Naruto, what's up?" it was Suigetsu's voice.

They stopped fighting and looked up at the new comers. Jugo and Karin were also there.

"We heard you were training here, so we thought we might join in!" Suigetsu smiled.

Sasuke raised a brow, "You _heard?_"

"I found your chakra," Karin explained.

"It sounded cooler the way I said it!" Suigetsu pouted.

"Moron," she replied.

Sasuke and Jugo decided to train together, it had been a while since they'd done it. The raven liked the familiarity of training with the orange-haired man. They both had their strengths and weaknesses; Jugo was much stronger, but Sasuke was faster and more precise in his attacks, so they tried to use these skills to their advantage. It was a little bit like fighting with Naruto, actually, but Jugo was more predictable then the blond ninja. All in all, Sasuke's favourite partner was still Naruto.

Suigetsu and Naruto trained together, Karin watching them. As usual, they ended up having fun and fooling around instead of training. Suigetsu was constantly transforming into water, and Naruto used senin mode to detect him. He was trying to catch him but each time Suigetsu was too fast. Karin was laughing, quite proud of her boyfriend's abilities. But at some point Suigetsu wasn't fast enough anymore, and Naruto caught him during the fraction of second that he materialized himself.

"Got you!" Naruto laughed.

Suigetsu was laughing too, "You're getting faster, Naruto!"

Then the silver-haired guy walked towards Karin and without warning, he pinned her to the ground and kissed her. At first she was struggling, but then she got into it and kissed back. Naruto was watching as their kiss got more passionate and Karin was running her hands on Suigetsu's backside and in his hair. Naruto shook his head, a little bit shocked by that public display of affection – didn't happen often with ninjas - and looked for Sasuke. He spotted him, sitting on the ground and relaxing with Jugo.

Watching Karin and Suigetsu, he kind of wished he could do the same thing with Sasuke. Maybe more privately though... Without really thinking, he walked up to the raven and took him by the arm, pulling him up.

"Come on!"

"What is it dobe?"

"Nothing, I just need to tell you something..." Naruto pulled him by the arm and they walked inside the forest nearby.

Soon they were far enough so they couldn't be seen by the others anymore - except probably for the anbu constantly watching on Sasuke, but he couldn't care less about that.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked again.

They stopped walking but Naruto didn't let go of Sasuke's arm. He took in the sight of his delicate face, his pale lips, his black eyes... he was leaning closer and closer and then he closed his eyes, and their lips touched. It was for the briefest moment, because Sasuke didn't kiss back, but it still send shivers all throughout the blond's body. When he pulled back, he saw that Sasuke was shocked. He tried to walk away but Naruto was still holding his arm.

"Wait! Sasuke, I'm sorry, it's just... I can't do this anymore." Naruto pleaded.

Sasuke didn't move.

The blond sighed. "I like you, Sasuke, I like everything about you, even your stupid mood swings and bastard attitude." He chuckled, "I spend just… one day without you, and I miss you so much! I think about you all the time..." he caressed the raven hair with his hand.

But Sasuke stepped back and glanced down. "Naruto... stop." He whispered.

"W-What?"

"Just... don't." Sasuke said and then he walked away.

Naruto's heart sank, and he regretted it now. He shouldn't have told Sasuke those things… Now he had just ruined everything… He leaned on a tree and let his body slide down on the ground. He ran shaky hands through his messy blond hair while tears were falling down his whiskered cheeks.

xxx

"Oi Sasuke! What are you doing?" Suigetsu shouted.

Sasuke was walking away from the training grounds quickly; he needed to get the hell out of there. He didn't answer Suigetsu and just left without a word. He was aware of the presence of three anbu following him, but he didn't care. It wasn't them he was running away from…

Neji had seen everything that had happened and had stayed behind because he wanted to talk with Naruto.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he walked towards the blond.

"I'm fine," Naruto snapped, glaring at Neji with a look that he hoped said mind your own fucking business.

"You love him." Neji said simply.

Naruto's blue eyes widened. "That's... you... why are you talking to me? Just leave me alone!"

"Naruto you have to stop chasing after him. He'll never love you, he'll never love anyone. That guy loves only himself, and he doesn't care about anyone else. He only cares about revenge." Neji said calmly.

The blond got up and glared into Neji's pale eyes. "You don't... you don't even know him..." he whispered.

The brunet watched him leave in silence. He didn't try to stop him, he knew he wanted and needed to be alone right now.

xxx

Sasuke went to his apartment and took a shower, trying to calm down. He felt so upset and he hated himself for his reactions, but he just didn't think. He didn't understand his feelings, and he hated the idea of losing control, so he just... ran away... again. Maybe he was just a fucking coward, running away from Naruto like that…

He got out of the shower, put some clothes on and went in the kitchen. But of course, the only food he had was ramen, and that reminded him way too much of a certain blond... that had just kissed him and told him that he liked him... and just the touch of his lips had been so intense... Fuck, he thought, putting his head in his hands.

There was a knock on his door, interrupting his troubled and confused thoughts.

He opened the door to... someone he hadn't seen in quite a while.

"Kakashi," he said, surprised.

"The one and only," the grey-haired ninja replied.

Sasuke let him in and closed the door.

"Honestly, I didn't think you would want to see me." The raven told him.

Kakashi shook his head. "To be honest I didn't. But Naruto asked me to."

Sasuke frowned. "Oh... of course he did."

"Please don't be mad at him. He told me that I should talk to you, that it would be worth it. But if you're just gonna be an ass..."

"What the hell do you want me to say? I'm sorry, okay? There, I said it. I'm sorry if I'm not the one you wanted me to be. It's too late to talk now, Kakashi."

Damn, he wasn't in the mood for this… And he was getting so emotional lately… That wasn't too good for his reputation.

The older man sighed. "Well that's what I thought, too. But Naruto seems to believe in you, so I decided to give you a chance. Looks like I was wrong."

He walked away and was about to open the door to leave.

"Wait!" Sasuke stopped him. "I want to know... what Naruto told you."

Kakashi smirked behind his mask and turned around.

"Let's have a seat, shall we?"

Sasuke sat on the floor, his back on the wall, while Kakashi sat on the couch comfortably.

"You can sit with me on the couch, you know? I'm not gonna bite you, I'm not Orochimaru."

Sasuke glared. "I'm fine, thanks. And that was the worst joke. Ever."

Kakashi shrugged, "I thought it was funny, but let's move on. You wanted to know what Naruto told me."

"Yeah."

"Well, I told him that I didn't understand how he could trust you, after everything you've done. He told me that if I talked to you, maybe I'd understand."

"That's the kind of stupid answer the dobe would give..."

"Why does he trust you?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Beats me."

"All right, I'll try something else then. Do you still want to destroy Konoha?"

"No..."

Kakashi nodded. "But... you still want revenge for Itachi?"

Sasuke didn't answer; instead he just frowned and looked down.

"All right, touchy subject I suppose." Kakashi crossed his arms. "What made you change your mind, about destroying Konoha and doing a massive genocide on your own?"

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and sighed, confused. This surprised Kakashi, he had thought the raven would just glare at him as usual.

"It won't bring him back..." he finally whispered.

Kakashi's voice turned very serious and sad. "No, it won't."

Sasuke's eyes held so much pain, sadness, guilt and regret when they looked up at him, that he started to understand why Naruto wanted him to talk with the raven. But it was just for a moment, and then his expression was blank again.

But Kakashi still had one more question. "You knew this before, though. You already knew that it wouldn't bring him back. Still, you wanted revenge; you needed to hold on to something. What changed that?"

"What are you? A fucking therapist now or what? What's with all those fucking questions?" Sasuke hissed.

"I'm doing this for Naruto."

That line was getting overused now, Sasuke thought.

"He's old enough, he can handle himself."

"Can he, or are you going to hurt him again, Sasuke?"

The raven's eyes widened in shock at what his ex sensei had just said. He realized he didn't want to hurt Naruto, that was the last thing he would want to do. And maybe, that very same day, he had done just that.

"I'm going to ask you again, one last time, and I want you to be very honest. Are you going to try anything to damage Konoha or its people?"

"I don't care about Konoha!"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "What do you care about?"

Naruto, Sasuke thought. He looked at Kakashi, almost expecting him to have heard it. He got up and walked towards the door, he needed to go outside and clear his thoughts.

"I'm sorry I... I have to go." He muttered then he opened the door.

Kakashi put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, making him jump slightly.

"Sasuke, if you and I care about the same thing, then I might consider trusting you again."

Sasuke stayed silent for a moment, then he just nodded, and they both went outside, walking in opposite directions.

The raven ended up lying down in the grass, at the same training grounds they had all been earlier. But it was empty now, and it was getting late. He was glad that the anbu that were watching him were staying hidden. He really felt like being alone. Their presence was annoying, but he could deal with it. Naruto had been right; they were very professional, even Neji.

He didn't know why he came back here. Maybe he was subconsciously hoping the blond would still be there.

He looked as they sky was getting darker, and he could see a few stars. He stayed there so long that he eventually closed his eyes, and fell asleep with thoughts of Naruto on his mind...


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Sasuke's dream was different this time. He wasn't really in it at first, he was just watching. He saw Naruto walking back to his apartment. The blond looked miserable, so sad and upset. Sasuke wanted to comfort him, to hold him in his arms, but he couldn't do anything. He could only watch.

Instead of stopping at his apartment, Naruto went to see the Hokage. Sasuke watched as Naruto picked up the most dangerous mission and told Tsunade that he would go alone. Then the dream changed; it fast forwarded to an image of Naruto fighting a group of rebellious shinobi. They were in the Sand village. Sasuke was helpless as he watched Naruto be outnumbered.

He tried to move, to scream, to do something, but it was useless, he could only stand there and look at the blond being killed by his opponents.

When he finally found his voice he screamed, "Naruto!"

The blond looked in his direction and when he saw him he smiled, and his face and his eyes and everything about him was so beautiful but so sad. Sad because it was too late. He was falling to his knees, and the enemies gave the final blow...

His eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet. Without thinking, he ran as fast as he could to Naruto's apartment. He didn't stop until he was at his door; knocking furiously.

"Is that you Sakura? Cause I'm not in the mood!" Naruto said as he opened the door.

Sasuke suddenly felt foolish. Of course Naruto was at his apartment, and he was okay. Well, maybe okay wasn't the right word. He did look miserable. His eyes were still watery, he had tears marks on his cheeks and his blond hair was very messy; even more than usual. When he saw who it was, he stepped back, quickly wiped off his eyes, and his face became serious.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here?"

The raven tried to find the right words. "It's just... I made a stupid dream and... I just came here. I wasn't thinking I guess... I'll just leave now."

Naruto's expression softened. "Wait! If you want, you can stay here. I can't sleep either, so..."

They sat at Naruto's small kitchen table in an awkward silence, both avoiding the other's eyes.

"So, you're still having those nightmares?" Naruto asked, without looking at him.

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke muttered.

"You don't want to tell me?"

"…"

"Damn it Sasuke! I'm sorry, I tried to be nice, but why the fuck did you come here?" Naruto shouted, definitely looking at him now.

The raven got up and walked to the door.

"That's it... just go see Ino, or Sakura, for all I care..." Naruto whispered.

But Sasuke heard him and turned around.

"What did you say?" he returned to stand right in front of the blond.

Naruto got up as well and looked straight in Sasuke's eyes. "You heard me; I said you can go back to your girlfriend, whoever she is. You could have told me if you liked Ino, or Sakura, I get it. But no, you just tell me nothing and I'm supposed to be your friend and..."

"Naruto, stop!"

The blond had tears in his blue eyes again. He looked away and tried to hide it.

Sasuke sighed, he didn't know what to say or where to start, and damn he really wasn't good at this! He opened his mouth, and the only thing that came out was. "I don't have a girlfriend..."

"Yet," Naruto finished for him.

"Ino's really nice and Sakura's... well, you know how she is. They're a little less annoying then when we were kids, but that's pretty much it. I mean, I don't... want to be with any of them..."

"I'm sure you'll find someone else."

"Naruto! Would you listen to me for one second? What I'm trying to say is, I don't want someone else."

"You're not making any sense."

"Look, Naruto, I... You were right, okay? I'm emotionally retarded and when it comes to feelings, even my own, I'm completely clueless."

The blond looked at him, his eyes softened and his lips twitched into a little smile. "You really are emotionally retarded."

"I know."

Naruto laughed. "Stupid teme, what am I gonna do with you?"

Sasuke let himself fall on the chair, with his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.

"I still don't understand." Naruto said.

"How could you, when I don't even understand myself?"

"You should go see Sai and borrow one of his books."

"What?" He looked up, confused.

"Nothing," Naruto laughed. "Okay, well I don't know... you could try to explain, and maybe I can help you understand."

Naruto brought his chair next to Sasuke's, and waited.

"Okay," Sasuke muttered, running his hands in his hair nervously. "In my dreams, you're always like, in danger; people are attacking you and you're outnumbered, for example, and I want to go help you, but I can't."

"Sasuke..." he whispered.

"I just stand there and watch you die! Just like Itachi... And I can't fucking move or do anything about it. That's why I came here actually; I just... needed to see you. When I'm with you, I feel... like I'm alive again, and...You make me feel... like my life is worth living and... I just... I don't even know what I'm saying..."

Naruto softly took Sasuke's hands and put them away from his beautiful face. Blue eyes met black as they leaned closer to each other. They closed their eyes as their lips touched. This time Sasuke returned the kiss. At first it was hesitant, but then Sasuke wrapped his arms around the blond and pulled him closer. Naruto sat on top of Sasuke as he deepened the kiss with his tongue, putting one hand behind Sasuke's back, under his shirt, and the other hand in his raven hair.

After what had seemed like an eternity, but still not long enough, they broke the kiss, both panting. They stayed like this for a while, though, wrapped in each other's arms tightly. Sasuke buried his head in the blond's neck, he didn't want to let go.

But Naruto pulled back slowly, looked at him and grinned. "Well, that was better than the first time."

Sasuke smirked. "Which one are you talking about? Cause technically, there were three other times before this one."

Naruto laughed. "You're right! But they don't count."

"Why?"

"Because I said so!" the blond smiled.

He got up and took Sasuke by the arm. "Come on" he led him to his bedroom.

"It's okay I can sleep on the couch."

Naruto looked disappointed, but he just shrugged. "Okay, whatever you want!"

Sasuke nodded and went to lie down on the couch, while Naruto went to sleep in his bed in the other room.

The blond couldn't help but have a silly grin on his face. He couldn't sleep, he kept thinking about Sasuke, and what had just happened. It had felt like a dream, it couldn't be real, could it? He was tempted to go in the other room to see if Sasuke was really there, sleeping on his couch.

After an hour of tossing and turning, and not being able to sleep at all, Naruto got up to get some water in the kitchen. When he came back, he heard whispers and moans so he went to check on Sasuke. He was having another nightmare.

Naruto frowned and went by his side.

"Sasuke, wake up!"

Naruto shook him softly and the raven woke up and sat straight up, panting, heart beating really fast and eyes wide open with a look of fear in them. Naruto caressed his hair, moving raven locks away from his face.

"Come on," he whispered.

This time, Sasuke followed him to his bedroom. They crawled under the blankets and Naruto wrapped his arms around him, and soon his heartbeat and breathing slowed down.

The raven felt safe in Naruto's strong arms that were holding him tight.

"You can sleep now." Naruto said before kissing his neck.

Sasuke closed his eyes and drifted into sleep. No nightmares haunted him this time.

xxx

He woke up in the bright sunlight of midday. He looked around him, confused, and then remembered where he was, and what had happened. But he was alone in the bed. He frowned and looked for Naruto in the small apartment, but he wasn't anywhere. There was a note on the table.

_Hey sleepyhead,_

_I didn't want to wake you, you were just so cute! So yeah, I'm sorry I just need to go for a mission today, but I'll be right back._

_See ya__!_

Sasuke dropped it and panicked. He took a deep breath to try and calm down. He had a really bad feeling that this was just like in his dream...

Sasuke hurried to the Hokage's office. He knocked on the door. Before going in the room, he remembered what Sakura had told him; that it would be good if he would go and thank the Hokage for everything she had done, so he forced himself to do it.

"Come in!" Tsunade said.

He stood in front of her and bowed. "Hokage-sama, first of all I wanted to say thank you for helping me get out of jail."

She frowned. "I didn't do it for you, I did it for..."

"Naruto," he finished for her. "I know." It was getting seriously annoying at this point. "Speaking of him, please tell me on what mission he went today?"

"It's strictly confidential, sorry." She didn't seem sorry at all.

"S-rank mission, he insisted on going alone?"

She frowned but she didn't answer.

"Where did he go?" Sasuke was starting to freak out when she didn't answer.

"To the Sand actually... But how do you know about this?" Tsunade asked suspiciously.

This has got to be a fucking joke... he thought, panicked. "At what time did he leave?"

"I don't know, he told me he'd go early this morning, so he's probably there already. Sasuke, what is this all about?"

"Sorry, but I have to go."

Without one more word he left her office, running very fast. She was protesting but he didn't hear any of it. He went to Karin first.

"Karin I need your help." He said when he found her outside her apartment.

She frowned. "Last time I heard that, you wanted to go kill your brother, and then we joined the Akatsuki, and you also tried to kill me..."

Sasuke mentally cursed, but tried to calm down. He really didn't need to be told that story again. "Look, I can apologize properly some other time maybe, but right now I don't have time for this. I need you to find Naruto."

She noticed how urgent the situation seemed, so she just nodded and concentrated, "he's not in the village..."

"I know, he's gone to the Sand."

She frowned. "He's almost out of my reach and moving really fast! We have to hurry."

He nodded and they immediately started running, Sasuke explaining the minimum details quickly; Naruto was gone on an S rank mission and he needed their assistance. She didn't question any further and kept running, concentrated on keeping track of Naruto's chakra.

Neji caught up to them and addressed Sasuke.

"What do you think you're doing, Uchiha?"

"Damn it Hyuga, I don't have time for this."

"You know you're not allowed to leave Konoha, right?"

"Am I supposed to care?"

"And you," he said, addressing Karin this time, "you'll be put back on probation, maybe even in jail, if you help him escape."

"I don't think he would need my help if he wanted to escape." Karin snapped then concentrated again.

"After everything Naruto's done for you, you're just gonna run away like that?" Neji shouted.

"I'm not running away, idiot, I'm going after Naruto!" Sasuke replied.

"Why?" Neji was confused.

They ran past the Leaf border, but Sasuke didn't stop or slow down.

"You know I'm supposed to arrest you right now?" Neji said.

"Can you try to arrest me later; I'm kind of busy right now."

"Why are you going after Naruto?" Neji asked again.

"Because his mission is too dangerous, he can't do it on his own."

"How do you know this?"

"I just know!" Sasuke snapped.

"Fine, but I'm going with you. And if you lied to me, I'm gonna arrest you and put you back in jail." Neji threatened.

"Hn... as if you could" Sasuke whispered.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Now run faster!"

Sasuke was worried that they would be too late, after all Naruto had a few hours of advance and he was really fast... He only hoped they would make it on time. They had to…


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

While running through the Sand's territory, they didn't encounter any problems until Karin warned them.

"We're not far, let's go, this way!"

Sasuke and Neji followed her lead. When Sasuke was close enough himself to see a group of people fighting, Naruto in its center, he passed Neji and ran faster.

Naruto was not using his full strength, because he didn't want to hurt these people. They were just a group of shinobi that were against the Kazekage's leadership, and they were causing a lot of trouble. But the blond just wanted to arrest them, not kill them. It was indeed a little bit too much for one person, even for him. He was tired and his reflexes weren't as sharp anymore.

One of them attacked him on a point blank behind his back, and he fell to the ground. Just as he was about to be stabbed by one of his enemies, he received unexpected help.

"Chidori!" Sasuke attacked just in time, and stole the enemy's sword.

Sasuke turned around, ready to help Naruto again if needed. But he was too late; one of the others was already attacking him. Sasuke's heart sank, but then his emotions turned into confusion as Naruto's body just disappeared in smoke.

"Forgot my trademark jutsu?"

Sasuke turned around again only to see a very exhausted, but smirking Naruto. He couldn't repress a smile, but there was no time for him to reply anything, they were right in the middle of a fight after all.

Sasuke attacked with his new found sword, Neji and Karin now fighting beside him. Soon a lot of the enemies had fallen and the rest of them ran away. With no more signs of possible threat, Naruto gave in his exhaustion and fell to the ground, breathing hard. He had made some shadow clones before, but the original did take on almost all of the injuries received after they disappeared.

Sasuke fell on his knees beside Naruto. He checked his injuries; they didn't seem fatal but he needed medical assistance nonetheless. He put his hand on Naruto's cheek and the blond leaned in the touch and opened his blue eyes.

"Are you crazy?" he shouted. "You could have been killed!"

"No, I was fine..." Naruto protested weakly.

"Yeah, of course you were! Because I saved your ass! Usuratonkachi..."

Naruto smirked and put his hand on Sasuke's. "I told you... you would have done the same for me. See, I was right after all."

"Reinforcements from the Sand are coming." Karin announced. "Shikamaru and Temari are there."

Sasuke nodded, he didn't say anything, he just kept Naruto's hand in his. As Karin had said, a few sand shinobi arrived soon after. Shikamaru immediately ordered the medical ninja to heal Naruto, but he told them he was fine and to keep their strength to heal the remaining rebels. Temari organized the tracking of the ones that had escaped.

Shikamaru wanted to know what had happened, so Neji explained as best as he could. Sasuke helped Naruto sitting up, putting an arm around his shoulders, but he was listening at the same time.

"Naruto went on this mission alone, but Sasuke thought it would be too dangerous and wanted to help, so I followed him."

The raven noticed Neji had used his first name.

"Gaara is currently visitting a little village nearby, that's probably why these guys were around here." Shikamaru explained.

"We received a message from the Hokage, telling us someone would come to help us deal with them as we requested" Temari added. "So my brother sent the reinforcements as soon as possible. Looks like you guys beat us to it though."

"We can offer you shelter so you can have some rest. It's not too far from here." Shikamaru suggested.

Neji smiled. "Thank you. Hey Shikamaru, you say, we, like you are part of the Sand now."

Temari laughed. "Well... let's just say he's gonna be here even more often now."

"Gaara offered me a permanent job as part of his personal elite shinobi." Shikamaru explained.

"That's great!" Neji exclaimed.

"Isn't it!" Temari smiled and put her arm around Shikamaru's waist.

"You shouldn't... your body's still weak..." one of the medics suddenly said.

Naruto had tried to get up on his own a little bit too quickly, but he almost fell, and Sasuke caught him.

"I'll help you," he said, sliding his arm around his waist to hold him and Naruto put his arm around his shoulders for support.

"All right, let's go." Shikamaru ordered.

Sasuke and Naruto followed the others. They led them to a little hospital where they found a room for Naruto, so he could have some rest. As soon as Sasuke left the hospital, though, the sand shinobi under Temari and Shikamaru's orders took him by the arms roughly and tied his wrists together behind his back.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he sighed.

"Sorry but, those are the orders." Temari said. "If you were to leave Konoha and come here, our orders are to put you in jail."

The men took him at the same place as the other criminals he had just fought before. This was ridiculous... They wanted him to visit every jail in this world or what...?

They put the rebel ninjas behind bars, and Sasuke in a separate cell.

The raven was wondering if he should break the door just by kicking it or hitting it, or if he should use Chidori on it, when Neji arrived, panting.

"Sasuke I'm so sorry about this. I tried to talk to Shikamaru and Temari, and explain them what happened, but they won't hear it. They say it's the orders."

Sasuke raised a brow. "So you're on my side now? I thought you were more than eager to put me back in jail."

Neji sighed. "I misjudged you after all. You just wanted to save Naruto, and you did the right thing. Sometimes it's not all about respecting rules and orders. The same man we saved today taught me that a long time ago."

Sasuke smirked. "All right, well Neji, if you would just step aside, please, I'm going to get out now."

"No, Sasuke, wait! Maybe if I just go talk to Gaara..."

But Sasuke didn't want to spend one more second in a stupid cell. He gathered lightning energy in his fists and hit the door where the lock was. It broke and opened right away.

Neji's eyes widened "Well... I guess you can come with me then."

Sasuke smirked, "Sure."

They asked for an immediate audience with the Kazekage, and they were told he was waiting for them anyway. There were some protests because Sasuke was there, but murderous glares from both the raven and Neji shut them up. They entered the room and the young Kazekage turned his attention on them.

"Hyuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke. This is more than unexpected. Could you please explain to me what happened, and why you are here?" Gaara asked addressing Sasuke.

Neji knew diplomacy wasn't Sasuke's strength, so he explained everything by himself again.

"See, there was no time for an authorisation and we're sorry about that, but I made it my responsibility when I chose to follow him here. Turns out he was right and Naruto did need our assistance after all, so I'm glad I chose to trust him." Neji said, finishing his explanations.

Gaara nodded slowly. "Then I guess I have to thank you both. If anything happened to Naruto, it would sadden me greatly. I will write a message to the Hokage. You can both stay here and be free as long as you wish."

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama." Neji bowed politely.

Sasuke bowed and then they both left the room.

"Where are you going?" Neji asked.

"The hospital."

Neji nodded. "I'll go with you."

Naruto was alone in his hospital room now, and he already looked much better. He had some bandages but as usual they weren't really necessary; the Kyubi's chakra healing his skin at an incredible speed. Sasuke sat on the bed beside him and Neji sat on a chair.

"Sasuke! Temari said they put you in jail!" Naruto exclaimed.

The raven smirked. "Let's just say I'm done with jails now."

Naruto laughed. "What happened?"

"He destroyed the door of his cell and broke free." Neji explained.

Naruto grinned. "Awesome."

Neji rolled his eyes. "You're both so immature."

"What did Gaara say? He's okay with you being here?" the blond asked.

"Yeah, it was all thanks to Neji, actually." Sasuke said.

Neji smiled. "I just figured it wouldn't be a good idea to let you talk."

Naruto raised a brow. "What, you two are bonding now?"

All three of them laughed - well Sasuke just smiled - and after a moment Neji decided to leave, to give them some privacy.

Naruto sat up and took Sasuke's hand.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"I... it will probably sound crazy but, I had a dream... that this would happen." Sasuke said slowly.

Naruto frowned. "A dream?"

"Yeah..."

"So you're a psychic now?"

"I guess."

"Stop messing with me, Sasuke, this is getting creepy."

The raven shrugged. "I'm not lying."

"It could have been a coincidence, though." Naruto suggested.

"Maybe..."

"Anyway, we'll have to make those dreams of yours disappear, okay?"

"Well actually..." Sasuke started, but he stopped and he felt warmth on his face.

"What?" Naruto asked. "Oh my God Sasuke... you're blushing." The blond smiled fondly, "you are so cute."

"What? No, I'm not. You're crazy."

"Come here," Naruto leaned forward and kissed him softly, then wrapped his arms around him and held him tight.

Sasuke wrapped his arms around the blond as well, careful not to hurt him though.

"What did you want to tell me?" Naruto whispered in his ear.

"The dreams..."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I don't have them when I sleep with you."

Damn that sounded sappy…

But Naruto smiled. "You'll just have to sleep with me every night then."

"Yeah," Sasuke said, half-teasing.

"I got no problem with that, do you?"

"Absolutely not," Sasuke said before pulling away and kissing Naruto again.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

A few weeks had gone by since the mission at the Sand, and the Hokage and Kazekage, both grateful for what Sasuke did, slowly convinced the other Kages that he should be freed of all charges and made officially a Konoha ninja again.

Those weeks weren't so bad for Sasuke; most of the time he was training with Naruto, and often Neji, instead of just watching, would join them. Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo often trained with them too when they weren't gone on missions.

Neji didn't ask any questions about their relationship, and he didn't tell anyone either. Sasuke and Naruto were glad for this, because despite of all the affection they had for each other, they were keeping it a secret for now. It was for the best, because maybe it would have caused problems with Sasuke's probation; Naruto being the one supposed to watch him and judge if he could be trusted again.

Sasuke slept at Naruto's place every night, there was always some passionate kissing, but nothing more. Without talking about it, they knew they both wanted more, but they didn't want to break what they had; they were both so scared of losing each other. And also, there was always at least one god damn anbu on watch...

Ino and Sakura were still trying to seduce Sasuke, but they had no success. They thought maybe it was just because he was still as independent and a loner as when he was younger. They couldn't have been more wrong, though...

Sasuke was getting closer to Naruto, and at this point he couldn't imagine his life without the blond. They opened up more and more to each other; telling the stories of how their life had been during all those years apart. Naruto recounting how it had been hard to lose him over and over again, to never be able to reach him and help him all those years, and Sasuke telling him about his life filled by darkness, hatred and revenge. Naruto had truly been his light to get out from it all...

They were both really sick of being watched all the time, and they couldn't wait for the probation to finally end. So when Naruto went to a final meeting with Tsunade to look over the other Kages' answers and discuss the possibility of Sasuke's complete freedom and new job as a ninja, they were both very hopeful.

That is why Sasuke was waiting anxiously, outside the building where the Hokage and Naruto were. He had gathered a little crowd around him. Ino and Sakura were there, as well as Neji and Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo.

"I'm sure it will be fine!" Ino reassured him.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama told me that things looked good so far!" Sakura added.

"You know, you'll have to do the Chuunin exams all over again!" Neji said with a smile.

Sasuke raised a brow. "Did you?"

"Yeah, we all had to do it again, except Shikamaru who was the only one who actually became a Chuunin the first time."

"Hn..."

Suigetsu laughed. "You see Sasuke, here you're just at Genin level!"

Neji glanced at the silver-haired man. "No offense, but you are too. When it's time for the next Chuunin exams, you're all gonna have to take it if you want to become one."

Suigetsu shrugged it off. "Whatever, it will be a real joke, I'm sure."

"We'll see!" Neji said.

"It all depends on who you have to fight in the end." Sasuke frowned, remembering who his opponent had been; Subaku no Gaara, who at the time had very dangerous murderous intentions.

A very happy looking blond with a bright grin suddenly opened the door and they all turned their attention on him. Unable to just stay quiet and wait, Ino broke the silence.

"So, just tell us what happened already!" she exclaimed.

Without a word, Naruto walked towards Sasuke and hugged him. Then he pulled away, smiled and showed Sasuke a new Konoha head band.

"I kept your old one," the blond smirked, "but there was a scratch on it so..."

Neji smiled and slapped Sasuke's shoulder in a friendly way. "Congratulations."

Ino and Sakura cheered and the others just smiled. Naruto put the headband on Sasuke's forehead and tied it behind his head, softly pulling some hair out to make it look like he used to wear it before. Then he looked at him, smiling.

"It feels so good to see you wearing this, you have no idea." He said, voice full of emotion.

Sasuke didn't care that much about the headband, but he cared a lot about Naruto's happiness, so he smiled and looked into his beautiful blue eyes.

"Thank you, for everything." He whispered so that they were the only ones who heard it.

"We should organize a party, to celebrate!" Ino suddenly exclaimed.

Sasuke started protesting. "No it's okay I don't want..."

But Naruto interrupted him. "That would be awesome!"

"All right it's settled then!" Ino smiled. "You can all come to my house tonight! My father's gone on a mission so it's perfect!"

Ino and Naruto being very convincing people, they spent the rest of the day inviting all of their friends that were currently here at the village. They all showed up at Ino's house that same evening. Sasuke didn't want to go, but Naruto forced him.

It was awkward at first, because a few of them had not spoken to Sasuke since he came back. But Naruto had warned him that some of them might be very weird, so he was ready.

The first one to talk to him was Sai, he had a book in his hands.

"Hi Sasuke, my name is Sai. I think we've met before."

"Sorry I don't really... remember." The raven shook his head.

"Oh let me remind you, we were at Orochimaru's hideout and you tried to kill Naruto with your sword, and then I stopped you."

Sasuke's eyes widened. He didn't know if it was a joke, but Sai seemed very serious, or more like expressionless. Well, this guy knew how to create an awkward moment...

"Right..." Sasuke said.

"So anyway, Naruto told me that you might need this book."

Sai showed him the book he had in his hands. The title was "A guide to understanding your feelings."

The short-haired man smiled. "I finished it already, so you can have it." He handed him the book. "See you later."

Sasuke was speechless as the weird guy walked away. He looked at the book and repressed a laugh. He looked around the house for Naruto, and finally spotted him in the kitchen. He was with Ino, looking for her father's hidden stash of sake. The raven smiled and was about to join them, but he was stopped by another weird guy with short black hair. But he remembered this one.

"Uchiha Sasuke, congratulations on becoming a Konoha shinobi again! In case you don't remember me, I will introduce myself. I am Rock Lee, student of Gai-sensei and absolute expert at tai jutsu, my lifelong rival is Hyuga Neji and..."

"It's okay I remember." Sasuke interrupted him before he told him every detail of his entire life.

"Good! I hope we can train together soon, and I will see if my tai jutsu is still better than yours!"

"Hn... you wish."

"I love challenges! Let's fight right here and right now, to see which one is the strongest! If I lose, I will make a thousand push ups, run five hundred laps around Konoha and..."

"I don't think Ino would appreciate it if we fought here..." Sasuke interrupted him again.

"No she wouldn't!" Ino, who had heard their conversation, walked up to them. "So Lee, you will have to control yourself if you want to stay at this party, okay?"

"All right, Ino-san. Do you know where Sakura-san is?" Lee asked.

Ino told him where she was, and he walked away. Sasuke looked at her with gratitude.

"You're welcome." She laughed. "So, do you want some sake?"

Naruto, Ino and Sasuke sat together and started drinking.

"So teme, did you make some new friends?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke showed him Sai's book and the blond burst out laughing.

"I didn't think he would actually give that to you!"

"What is it?" Ino took the book from Sasuke's hands and she started laughing too. "It's true that you would need some help Sasuke."

"What do you mean?" the raven asked, drinking some more sake.

"Oh come on!" she smiled. "I think I figured out you liked Naruto even before you figured it out yourself!"

Both guys looked at her, a little shocked at what she had just said, but she only laughed more.

"You guys are so funny. I know it's supposed to be a secret, but it's just too obvious, you're all over each other."

"When did you know?" Sasuke asked.

She hesitated. "I think when we were shopping and you were looking for clothes for Naruto."

The blond smiled and looked at Sasuke. "Speaking of that, remember I told you I'd give you a gift too?"

The raven nodded.

"Well I finally have it now! I'll give it to you later."

"Why not now?" Ino asked excitedly.

"Cause it's at my apartment."

"Oh," she seemed disappointed, "I wanted to know what it was."

Naruto laughed. "I'll tell you, but it's a secret, okay?"

Sasuke just watched with a little smile as the blond whispered in Ino's ear. After hearing it, she giggled, putting a hand in front of her mouth.

"Naruto that is so sweet of you!" she said.

"I bet you're curious now?" Naruto asked him.

"Nope." The raven lied, smirking at Naruto's cute pout.

"Don't worry Naruto. He's lying." Ino said.

"Yeah I'm sure you're lying teme." Naruto smiled.

Ino put the bottle of sake back in its hiding place; they hadn't drunk too much so his father would probably not know. Then she left them alone to go see her other guests.

Sasuke wasn't drunk, but the alcohol still had some effects on his body. He leaned towards Naruto teasingly until their lips were just a few inches apart. The blond tried to kiss him a few times but Sasuke was pulling back every time to tease him even more. Naruto got tired of this little game, caught Sasuke in his arms in one movement and kissed him passionately.

"You want to go back to your apartment?" the raven whispered when they parted.

"Yeah," Naruto breathed against Sasuke's lips, sending a shiver through his body.

He smirked. "Let's go."

As soon as they entered Naruto's apartment and closed the door, Sasuke pushed him against the wall and started kissing him again. He ran his hands everywhere; in his blond hair, on his tan and soft skin. He wanted to feel every part of his body. This time, they weren't scared of being watched. It was just the two of them, alone. Without saying it, they had both been waiting for this for a long time. It wasn't just about sex; it was about giving themselves to each other, completely.

"Let's go... in my room..." Naruto said, panting, between two kisses.

They went to his room slowly, kissing and holding each other all the way; it was as if they didn't want to break contact, not even for one second. When they were standing in front of his bed, Naruto pushed Sasuke on it and then climbed on top of him. He removed his own shirt then removed Sasuke's. He kissed his neck, then his chest and stomach. When he reached his hips and lowered his pants, Sasuke arched his back a little and moaned. The blond smirked and started teasing him, kissing and licking all around his boxers.

"Naruto..." Sasuke said threateningly.

The blond chuckled and removed Sasuke's boxers and couldn't help but stare for a few seconds. Sasuke was a little smaller than him but not much; and Naruto was rather big himself. The blond took Sasuke's already hard member in his hands and started pumping, leaning over to kiss the raven at the same time. He kissed back passionately, wrapping his arms around him and caressing his hair. Then Naruto started kissing his neck again, going down all the way to his hips. Without warning, he engulfed Sasuke's erection in his mouth.

The raven arched his back and moaned. "Ahhh Naruto..."

The blond paused and looked at Sasuke. "I like when you say my name like that, it's so fucking sexy."

"Don't stop..."

Naruto smirked and licked the tip before taking it all in his mouth again and sucking him.

"Ahh... fuck... Naruto," Sasuke breathed, his hands all over the blond's shoulders, neck and hair.

It wasn't long before Sasuke came; it had all been too exciting and his first time, too.

"Fuck..." Sasuke whispered. "Naruto, that was so..."

"Good?"

"Yeah..."

Naruto smirked and kissed him in the neck and on the lips again; he wasn't done yet. He took off his pants to reveal his own erection. He licked his fingers and then brought them to Sasuke's entrance.

The raven raised a brow. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I want you," the blond breathed in his ear, making him shiver.

Sasuke smirked. "I want you, too." In one instant, he had flipped them over, and was now on top.

"But Sasuke... I really, really want you," Naruto protested, pouting. "And I'm still so hard…"

Sasuke glanced and the sight made him even more excited, "You are indeed." He mused.

Naruto flipped them over again, "So, how long are we gonna play this little game, Sasuke?"

The raven realized it wouldn't be so bad, and he felt like he actually wanted to give himself to Naruto like that. Anyway, he could have his turn another time... it felt good to know they had plenty of time ahead of them.

"All right, Naruto, I want you inside me," he whispered, to make the blond excited out of his mind.

And it worked; Naruto became harder, if possible, just hearing that. He didn't wait any longer; he started preparing Sasuke's entrance with his fingers, kissing him and caressing him with his other hand at the same time. Then he placed himself and slowly entered. Sasuke winced because of the pain, but he reassured Naruto.

"It's okay, keep going."

"You sure?" Naruto asked, worried.

Sasuke nodded and wrapped his arms around the blond to keep him close. Naruto finally entered all the way, and Sasuke bit his lip not to cry out in pain. Naruto started giving a few thrusts and when he hit a certain spot, pain was mixed with pleasure for Sasuke.

"Ahh, do that again!" the raven pleaded.

Naruto moved faster and tried to hit the same spot every time. They couldn't control themselves anymore; it just felt so good, so completely perfect.

"Ahh Sasuke...!"

It was such a turn on for Naruto to look at Sasuke like this. He was so beautiful, his black hair messy, his black eyes filled with lust and his pale face flustered. He leaned over to kiss him, at the same time bringing one of his hands to his once again hardened member. For Sasuke the pleasure of Naruto inside him combined with the feeling of his hand pumping his erection soon became too much. They came at the same time, both crying out each other's names.

Naruto let himself fall on the bed. Sasuke took him in his arms and held him tightly. The blond smiled and caressed his face and his hair softly. The passion and intensity were calmed, so now they let themselves be tender with each other.

Naruto looked at him with his breath taking blue eyes, and smiled the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

Sasuke looked back and whispered. "I love you."

Naruto's eyes widened and he just stayed silent for a moment, wondering if this was real. He took Sasuke's hand and kissed it softly, and then he kissed him on the lips.

"I love you so much Sasuke. I always have, and I always will."

Sasuke smiled. "You never said it before..."

"I think... I was waiting for you to say it first."

Sasuke nodded and then smirked, wanting to lighten the mood. "So was that your gift? You were right, I really liked it."

"No, of course not!" Naruto laughed, standing. "All right close your eyes!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes before closing them, an amused smile on his lips. He heard Naruto fumble around frantically in his messy apartment for a little while, and then he entered the bedroom again.

"Sorry," the blond said, panting. "I couldn't remember where it was, but now I found it!"

"Hn... dobe, that doesn't even surprise me. This place is such a mess."

"It's not!" Naruto argued.

Sasuke was still smirking.

"Teme! Just open your eyes!"

He opened them to see Naruto standing in front of him - his boxers back on - with something in his hands that he immediately recognized. He had almost forgotten about it. Sasuke stood up and slowly took the familiar sheath from Naruto's hands. Then, he took out the blade in one fast movement, making Naruto flinch and step back.

"Hey be careful!" he laughed.

Sasuke liked the feeling of holding his katana. It had been his only weapon and possession for such a long time.

He put it back in its sheath. "Naruto... how did you...?"

"Well you know... I have my ways!" the blond smiled.

"Thank you," Sasuke whispered then kissed him.

He put the sword on Naruto's desk and then wrapped his arms around his lover. They fell on the bed again, where they just relaxed, happy, and together. They fell asleep into each other's arms.


	23. Chapter 23

Epilogue

Uzumaki Naruto was walking quietly in the fresh evening air, towards the familiar training grounds. He felt comfortable in his simple clothes. He had decided to drop the Hokage outfit for today, instead wearing his good old black and orange sweats. He stopped in front of the memorial stone, taking a moment to look at the names of all the shinobi who had given their lives for Konoha.

He smiled when he felt a very familiar presence walking towards him. He turned around to look at him. Raven black hair dancing in the wind, pale white skin, such a beautiful body and face that made every girl in the village fawn over him even if he was an ex-criminal; that was the mystery of Uchiha Sasuke.

"You wanted to see me, Hokage," he said teasingly.

Naruto smiled, "as much as I like that title, I think we're intimate enough so that you can call me by my name Sasuke."

"Intimate, huh?" Sasuke whispered, smirking.

Naruto tilted his head to the side slightly, leaning closer to his lover. Their lips touched softly, before Naruto deepened the kiss by wrapping his arms around Sasuke and pulling him closer. They kissed passionately, tongues battling for dominance and bodies pressed against each other, before they finally pulled away, panting.

"I missed you," Naruto breathed. "I was worried. Your last mission took so long!"

Sasuke chuckled, amused. "You're the one who sent me on that mission..."

Naruto sighed; he was right, of course. But he couldn't help but worry every time Sasuke left for missions. It was silly because the Uchiha knew better than anyone else how to defend himself and handle risky situations, but still he didn't like it.

"So why did you want to meet me here?" Sasuke asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"I wanted to show you something," Naruto said simply.

He took his hand and pulled him closer to the stone. Sasuke raised a brow, but looked at it curiously. There, the newest name was written: 'Uchiha Itachi'. When he saw it, Sasuke's eyes widened and he took a step back.

"This is..." he whispered, "Naruto... you..."

"His name deserves to be there," Naruto said with a sad smile.

Ever since Sasuke had found the courage to tell him the whole, complete story of Itachi, Naruto had wanted to have his name written there. This represented the biggest sacrifice ever made for Konoha. Even though it was a mistake and it should never have happened, Itachi had protected what he believed in, and most of all, he had protected Sasuke. And Naruto could never be thankful enough for that.

Sasuke slowly nodded, with a bitter smile on his lips. "You know, he didn't want anyone to know about this. He wanted to be known as a criminal, and he wanted me to be known as a hero. Guess it didn't work out that way."

Naruto pulled him into a hug, "I'm sure he would happy, and so proud of you, too."

Sasuke tensed a little, but then he let himself relax in Naruto's embrace. They pulled away and silently walked towards the forest. Naruto sat down, leaning against a large tree and Sasuke imitated him. Seeing that he was shivering in his light black clothes, Naruto pulled him closer, and Sasuke pressed his body against him. These moments were so rare; their life was pretty crazy these days with him being the Hokage and Sasuke being the most skilled Juunin of the village. They made sure to seize any opportunities to spend time together whenever they had some free time.

"Ne, Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Can you believe it's been a year already?"

Sasuke looked up at him, amused. "A year since when exactly?"

Naruto felt warmth on his face. "Well you know, since you got out of jail and everything."

"Aww so cute, you mean us being together?" Sasuke asked teasingly. "You wanted to celebrate or something?"

Naruto's blush deepened. "No! I mean, I was just saying, it went by so fast, you know?"

"Yeah I know what you mean," Sasuke said, shifting his legs so that he was sitting in front of Naruto. "But we _could_ still celebrate, you know," he smirked, leaning closer.

Naruto smiled. "What did you have in mind?" he whispered although he had a pretty good idea, and had absolutely nothing against it.

Sasuke's smirk widened and he leaned closer, their lips almost touching now. Naruto suddenly felt a urge of childishness, maybe it was because he had some free time and could stop being the Hokage for at least one night, or maybe it was because they had been reminiscing old memories with Sasuke, or maybe he was just being himself for once; probably a mix of all that.

He suddenly pulled away and stood up, grinning. Sasuke raised a brow before imitating him.

"You know, it's been a while since I've trained with someone that was a good match for me," Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded, seeing where this was going. "Same here"

Without one more word, they started fighting, Naruto attacking first as usual, Sasuke defending himself with perfect reflexes. They were both having a lot of fun. Naruto had been honest when he had said he didn't have the opportunity to fight against someone of his calibre very often. And for Sasuke it was the same; he was usually reading any opponent so easily, but with Naruto it was impossible to do that.

Sasuke let his thoughts wander while he was fighting Naruto. Never losing focus on the tai jutsu battle, he thought about what Naruto had told him earlier, about Itachi. It still hurt a lot to think about his older brother, but maybe, just maybe Naruto was right and he would be proud of who he had become now.

He lost focus on the fight – not that he had been really focused anyway - and Naruto hit him behind the leg, making him fall on the ground roughly. Naruto sat on him and pinned him down, his sexy triumphant grin, blue eyes and blond locks the only things Sasuke was seeing.

"I win!" he stated.

"What's your price then?" Sasuke asked teasingly.

"What kind of question is that?" Naruto smiled before kissing him passionately.

He kissed back fiercely, noticing how Naruto's grip slowly loosened on his arms. When they pulled away, he locked eyes with Naruto.

"I love you," he breathed.

Naruto's eyes widened. Sasuke smiled at this; it had the expected effect. He only rarely expressed his feelings, but every time he did, Naruto appreciated it all the more. He also took this opportunity to flip them over and pin Naruto to the ground.

He smirked. "I win now," he whispered.

"You tricked me," Naruto protested. "It doesn't count."

"Of course it does." Sasuke kissed him again.

After that they just lied down together for a moment, enjoying this time together. When Naruto turned on his side to look at him, there was sadness in his blue eyes.

"What's on your mind?"

"You're leaving for another mission tomorrow..." Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, we don't have that much time left," he said, "but let's make the most of it." He added making Naruto smile one of those dazzling smiles Sasuke would never stop to love.

They spent another of those rare, but amazing nights together. They both couldn't see their life without the other, their hard work and though times seemed meaningful only for those moments where they could truly be happy, and be with the only other person in the world that understood everything they had been through.


End file.
